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The BSB Podcast With Jim Vines of The Broadway Magic Hour! · The BSB Podcast

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Welcome back, theater lovers, to another exciting episode of the BSB Podcast.
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Today we're asking ourselves who doesn't love a bit of magic,
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and today's guest knows quite a bit about that topic.
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With plenty of accolades to his name,
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including People's Choice Award and receiving top honors at
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the twenty seventeen FISM North American Championships,
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he has been entertaining audiences around the world with his unique style of magic.
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We're so excited to have Jim Vines on the podcast.
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Thank you so much for joining us today,
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Jim.
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My pleasure. Thanks for having me,
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guys.
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Absolutely. We're so excited to chat with you and really,
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you know, wanted to to go back a little bit on the timeline.
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~ obviously your passion for magic ~ began at a young age.
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And so we're curious, like what sparked that interest for you?
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But was so funny. I certainly wasn't expecting it.
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It kind of came out of the blue.
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~ when I was 12 years old and I was at school one day,
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~ a friend of mine, who I thought I knew,
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said to me, Hey Jim, I'm a magician.
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And I had never really heard anybody say that to me before in a serious way.
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So of course I asked him, Well,
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this is this is kind of ~ a surprise,
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but would you show me show me some magic?
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And he wouldn't do it. And ~ I thought maybe he was just
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a little shy about it or whatever,
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but and I asked him for a few days,
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he never would. But as luck would have it,
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one day we're ~ my class is in line at the cafeteria to get lunch.
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And this kid ~ he had forgotten his his milk money and he asked if he could borrow
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a quarter. And I'm like, sure,
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but you gotta show me a magic trick.
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And I'm I'm telling you guys he took that quarter and he just made
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Ha ha
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it disappear right in front of my eyes.
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His he had on short sleeves, no tricky boxes.
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No special assistant standing there,
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you know, nothing like that. ~ just pure magic up close.
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And I was so blown away. I'll never forget the feeling of that.
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It just felt like the the earth just disappeared from underneath underneath my feet.
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Well, he he wouldn't explain it to me,
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of course, because that's the magician's code.
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You can't can't share the secret.
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but I immediately at study hall went to the library at the school
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and found ~ some books on magic,
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started studying.
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And ~ and never look back. And I I showed him,
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I went a few weeks later after I'd perfected the trick,
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I showed it to him. He was like,
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That's cool. We started doing doing magic together.
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But ~ no, it's it's like that,
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and ever since then I've always been sort of in search of that same,
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that sort of moment of wonder again.
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And every so often I experienced it.
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I travel all over the world studying magic and watching magic.
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And ~ the more you know about magic,
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the harder it is to get that sort of
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Feeling. So I'm always blown away when once or twice a year I'll I'll
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Sure.
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see something incredible that I've never seen before.
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And it just takes me back to that moment.
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And is there a part of you that's still like,
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I have to know how that works?
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Kind of like with your friend?
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Of course. I know. It's terrible.
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I love
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to sort of marinate in the wonder as long as I can,
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but after a certain point, there's this this analytical side of my brain that takes
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over and says, okay, now let's put the puzzle pieces together.
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Let's figure it out, right?
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So besides your friend who was sounds it was a very big inspiration that kind
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of puts you on this journey, who would you say at a young age was like your biggest
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influences as you're kind of learning magic,
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you know, at twelve and and kind of getting a little bit older?
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There were so many, but by far,
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a head and shoulders above all of them,
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~ is a magician named Lance Burton,
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who during the nineteen nineties did a a bunch of television specials.
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He performed in Las Vegas for about 35 years.
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did actually, I believe he holds the record for most shows by a solo performer
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in Las Vegas at over 15,000 shows.
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And ~ he did this incredible dove act that I saw in.
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1981, when I was a kid, I saw him on the Johnny Carson show on New Year's Eve.
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And it was the most breathtaking magic,
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even to this day. I I still haven't seen anything quite as perfect
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and quite as magical as that. ~ and I'm really happy to say that that Lance
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is now a friend of mine. He actually ~ helped me,
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worked with me a bit and gave me some some notes and tips on the act that
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I took to the North American Championships of Magic,
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where I won and which very exciting,
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and that was the
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routine I did on Pen and Teller fool us.
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So, you know, Lance has these incredible insights and he can he's one
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of these guys who can watch an ~ you know,
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a a full, you know, six or seven minute act and think for a minute and then
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say five words that would take somebody else,
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you know, two weeks to sort of ~ get to that same level of nuance.
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It's it's really remarkable, his his level of of knowledge about magic.
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It sounds like he's been such an instrumental part in kind of helping
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you to continue on in this career.
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Definitely, you know, and not too many people do dove magic anymore.
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I think there's kind of, you know,
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people have a kind of a feeling of,
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well, you know, and and circuses see the same thing,
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you know, they don't want to see live elephants or,
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you know, live animals sort of in a performing environment too much.
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~ but a lot of those techniques of making the how the how the doves
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are ~ made to appear, those techniques can be adapted ~
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to other magic effects.
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And so I use a lot of those. And it's funny,
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even in close up magic and things like that,
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~ you can still find ways to use those techniques.
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So it's pretty cool.
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Yeah, that that transference definitely makes sense.
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I'm curious, was there as you like started out and started gaining more knowledge
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on all of these skills, was there a particular skill that you
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had a hard time, like that took you a while to kind of nail down?
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Yeah, you know, a lot of the the sleight of hand magic,
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the stuff that is done without any special prepared props or any special equipment.
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~ you know, the just the pure hand magic,
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~ which to me is the kind of like the closest thing there is to real magic because
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it's you just borrow something from someone and then make make some magic with it.
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That stuff is incredibly difficult.
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And you know, there are simple,
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it's sort of like playing a musical instrument.
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There are simple
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aspects of it, but then the more advanced you want to go and
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the more challenging you want to make it for yourself and and you know that
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you you can go down that path and kind of take it to an extreme.
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And we but it's really funny, you know,
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and I guess this is also like music.
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Some of the most beautiful and profound pieces of magic sometimes are the simplest,
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you know, and it's so so it's not necessarily the the more difficult
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and complicated the better, although that's sometimes the case.
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But ~ I've always loved a challenge.
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I've always loved ~ you know, vis ~ you know,
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~ dexterity and sort of vi visual magic.
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And so I've spent a lot of time working on that stuff.
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You know, with the mention of being a sleight of hand artist,
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you're an award winning sleight of hand artist at that,
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with the exception of maybe your friend who who pulled the coin
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and made it disappear at a young age,
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what drew you to that kind of type of magic compared to maybe some
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of the other forms that you see on stage?
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Well, it's interesting. I mean,
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now I really do all kinds of magic,
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everything from grand illusions,
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where at our show in Times Square at the Broadway Magic Hour,
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we get a kid out of the audience and levitate the kid up in the air five
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and a half feet, you know, past the hoop,
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and then bring the kid back down and send him back out.
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And this kid is not in on it. The kid never met us before that moment.
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~ you know, and so I'll do big stage illusions like that.
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~ and also ~ the you know,
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mind reading magic. I love that kind of thing.
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~ you know mentalism we call it and I'm always I always try to be careful
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to make sure that people understand that you know it's it's not a psychic phenomena.
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I I personally maybe there are people out there who are psychics.
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I certainly am not. I like to say I use my five senses to create the illusion
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of a sixth sense, right? But it's an illusion.
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And ~ but but from doing all those kinds of things and also ~ you know sleight
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of hand magic.
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like the thing I did on Penn and Teller.
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So I have sort of a an interest in all of it.
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And ~ you know, it's it's that kind of thing where I believe that
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you know some magicians will specialize exactly in in one kind of thing
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and sort of never deviate from that.
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But I always, you know, my wife always accuses me of looking at
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the next shiny object and saying,
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Yeah, what's over here? You know?
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~ but but I always feel like, you know,
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we have one life. We we should embrace it and and do as much as we can.
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Do you feel like you ever stop like can you ever stop learning in this thing
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or in this like topic of magic?
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Or do you feel like you just can continue to absorb as much as possible out there?
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Yeah, you know, new techniques and ideas are being invented every day.
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And so, but but we do stand on the shoulders of giants.
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So every single thing, and I'm sure this is the same,
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whether it's, you know, dance or painting or sculpture or acting.
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~ you know, there are certain,
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you know, legendary achieve ~ achievers that we get inspired by
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and maybe sometimes emulate, but but everybody wants to sort of put their
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own touch on things and and make something new.
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So
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In that way, you are always learning something new,
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even if it's teaching yourself,
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inventing something new and sort of creating something that hasn't existed before.
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But it's it's funny to me too.
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I'll sometimes find a really old magic book,
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you know, from from a hundred years ago or more,
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and start reading it and find some some little nugget in there that
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is so obscure and so clever.
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And I'll show it to well posted magicians who will just look at it and have no idea,
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you know.
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So these these secrets can be can be buried ~ and and and you can find
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and they're just it it's that's just such a delight,
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you know.
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Yeah, that's it's super interesting.
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I'm curious. You mentioned obviously there's kind of like these different dynamics
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or kind of subsets of magic. and then obviously you have those of
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us who are completely outside of of magic.
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Do you think that there are like any common misconceptions around like whether that
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be of folks who have no experience in magic and how they're perceiving what's
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happening, or even maybe amongst the magic community,
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like
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a certain type of magician against something else.
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Yeah, there are a couple of things like that.
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One is, and you don't see it this much often very often anymore,
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but you know, I grew up in Alabama in a very ~ conservative
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and Christian ~ household.
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And so my parents, you know, when they saw that I was studying magic,
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they immediately sort of got this this idea that I don't think that's such
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a good idea. You know, there's something ~ connected with the spirit world
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or the dark side, or who knows what they kind of thought.
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And
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You know, it took me ~ many years to sort of prove to them and show them that
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it is a it's a performing art.
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It's not, you know, has nothing to do with with anything spiritual or mystical.
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~ you know, although I'll get to that later,
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but I do believe in magic, but that's that's for another topic.
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But ~ but inside the magic community though,
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you have ~ it and and it may you may find this in other art forms as well,
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but
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You'll find certain types of magicians will have ~ they'll kind of look down their
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nose at something. Like, for example,
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like hardcore close up sight of hand artists will see a stage illusionist with
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a big flashy box, and a girl that gets inside the box and they they slice
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and dice and you know, and then she vanishes and you know,
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and they can look at it and say,
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you know, if I had that box, I could do the same thing.
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But it's just not that simple.
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and and I kind of had that prejudice myself,
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I feel like, before I actually,
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you know, got involved with some of the larger illusions myself.
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And what it comes down to is in the larger illusions,
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you get more into like the stagecraft and the blocking.
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And where does everybody stand?
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How is everybody moving so that the story that we're telling is clear?
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It becomes much more like in blocking in a play or a ~
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or a movement piece or dance where you know.
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You just can't walk out there and willy-nilly ~ try to spin the box around
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and try to open the doors and figure out,
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now I'm behind the door. Wait,
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I should be on the other side.
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You know, it's like all of these things have to be worked out beautifully.
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And when you see ~ a beau an incredible illusionist on stage and you know,
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the dancers are just moving effortlessly and the box pops open
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and the beautiful girl jumps out and and he catches her.
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And and it looks simple, but it has to look simple.
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It has to look effortless.
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Sure.
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But you think about the hours and hours of of rehearsal time and
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and thought and choreography that went into it.
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~ so but yeah, I think it's you probably find this kind of ~ these kind
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of misconceptions in any art form,
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I assume.
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You know, when you're talking about a routine like that and you know,
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you all the different pieces that go into it and how you're building it,
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how do you kind of develop a routine kind of from an initial ideal
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to a finished performance? And does it depend on like the tricks that you're doing
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or the illusions that you're doing or or the sight of like how
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do you personally kind of develop that process?
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Well, like at the Broadway Magic Hour where we do this show on the weekends,
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we really my performing partner,
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Carl Mercurio and I came to it with the idea of we want the odd we want
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to tell a story and we want the audience to have a certain kind of experience.
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And so we basically thought about the the through line and the sort of narratives.
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I mean, we even have a subplot in the show.
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I mean, it it's like it's
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It's not a dirty, it's not a linear narrative by any stretch of the imagination,
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but it certainly does tell a story and it has a point of view.
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And I feel like if you can, if you can,
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and the real pros tend to think about that first.
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Because when you leave the theater,
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you know, you want people to be thinking about you want them to
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be left with something tangible,
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a message that they can really keep with them.
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~ the message that
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you know, that we that we have,
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for example, is anything is possible.
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And if you believe in yourself,
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you can do anything. And I totally believe those two,
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~ those those two ~ statements through and through.
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I was always taught that when I was growing up and I believe it now.
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And I I like to be able to, you know,
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in that moment of wonder when the audience,
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when their mind is sort of turning inside out,
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to sort of deliver that message.
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The body's in a very vulnerable moment.
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And I think that you can come away from something like that really
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comprehending the the idea that anything is possible.
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And and so ~ so we kind of came at it from that perspective.
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And as for the tricks themselves,
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a lot of times if I'm coming up with a new illusion,
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I kind of work backwards. I'll think about what do I want the final moment
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of wonder to be.
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And then I just use my knowledge about magic to how to piece that together
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and make it work. because if if you start from the if you start from
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the beginning and don't really know where the ending is going to be,
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it's hard to get to the ending that you want to get to.
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And I think a lot of writers probably work that way as well.
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and ~ so it's and I I studied writing some in college.
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So that's that's you you bring these different sort of skill sets from different
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art forms and kind of transpose them into magic.
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You know what I mean?
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Yeah.
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I never thought of
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having a trick from the it makes sense though,
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'cause you're gonna have that big moment.
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So what is it? You kinda have to like retro act actively like work your
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way backwards to determine how to achieve that.
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Like that makes a lot of sense.
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Exactly. Exactly. Now maybe I'm saying too much.
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That's right,
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You're giving away all your secrets.
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sorry.
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Well, and that's interesting. I I'm curious,
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you know, you kind of talked about the storyline and the plot and maybe
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a subplot here or there. Do you think that that is kind of a deciding factor
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on whether or not a performance maybe is lackluster versus memorable?
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Like, is there any particular piece in a show that you're like this it this needs
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to be ~ what we do in order for this to really truly kind of wow?
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the the audiences.
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Totally. Audiences now are much more sophisticated than ever before because they've
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seen so much content. They're just overwhelmed every day on their phone.
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I mean, even a youngster, you know,
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is seeing, you know, ~ magic tricks on their phone.
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And so the the tricks themselves,
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I don't want to say don't matter because in a magic show,
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obviously the tricks matter. But what matters so much more is
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Is having them orchestrated in a way that leaves a memorable impression.
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One of the things that bothers me so much is when I go see a magician
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and it's just a series of unrelated tricks.
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You know, now I'm gonna, you know,
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push the spike through my arm.
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and then now I'm gonna find your card.
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And what does that those two things have to do with each other?
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And you know, ~ now I'm gonna ball up this $20 bill and it's gonna float in the air.
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Those three things have nothing to do with each other.
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I don't understand the point, you know?
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And I feel like unless your story is,
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you know, I'm a a wizard and I'm here just to prove to you and demonstrate
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to you that I can do all these things that I claim I can do,
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I guess that would be the story in that case.
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But you know, most often I think audiences now are are accustomed to seeing a show,
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a story with a real beginning,
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a middle, and an end. And
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They don't feel satisfied if it's just a series of unrelated tricks.
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Which would make sense. Absolutely.
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That I mean, I feel like people want a story.
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They want the emotional catharsis that comes from having like a like that journey
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through whatever show you're seeing with the person who's putting it on.
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Exactly. And just like with a stand-up comic,
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for example, you want callbacks,
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you know, you want these moments where after 30 or 40 minutes we're into
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the show and the performer says something that's a callback,
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we're like, yeah, we're all, you know,
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we're all in on this. We all understand the language of this show now.
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We're, you know, and and that's that's ~ enjoyable too on another level.
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So
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You know, with so many incredible like again we talked about these accolades,
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we talked about all these things that you've done with your career.
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What do you feel like's been a truly like what's been a highlight of your
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of your magic career?
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by far, appearing on Penn and Teller Fool Us was just unbelievable.
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~ first of all, they the whole production crew they have,
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they're just the nicest and most unbelievably professional organization.
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It's it's just so impressive. ~ I I can't even begin to
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to to express what a what a delight that was.
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And you know, they for Penn and Teller,
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that show is their love letter to magic.
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I mean they've
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Spent over 50 years performing together,
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and the world has rewarded them so beautifully,
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and they want to give back. And really,
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what the show is, is it's a showcase for all these magicians out there
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who have worked hard to create something unique.
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They certainly don't have guys who go into a magic shop and buy a trick
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and then show up and do it. You really have to come up with something they've never
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seen before, something that's very different,
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and and then they want to put it on a
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you know, on a stage in front of the world and it was really funny.
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I don't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing,
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but I'm backstage waiting for my turn to go on.
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I can hear the performer before me is out there on stage.
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I hear the there's 1200 people in their live,
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you know, theater at the Rio in Las Vegas and the whole audience is going crazy
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and very loud. And ~ I'm thinking,
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wow, I'm next, you know, I've I've seen every episode of this of this show.
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And now I'm gonna be out. It's gonna be a surreal.
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I'm gonna be out there. And then
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Michael Close, who's one of the producers of the show,
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says to me, When you go out there and perform in a minute,
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you're gonna be seen by more people in those seven minutes than Saw Harry Houdini
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in his entire career. And I'm like,
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Thanks, Mike. That's I really appreciate that.
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Ha ha.
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Thanks for reminding me about that.
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No pressure.
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No pressure. But they were absolutely a delight.
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And one of the funny things that ~ that they don't tell you is that.
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~ pen and teller are not supposed to know who is on the show.
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Until the performer actually walks out,
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they don't want to know who's coming out.
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And so the producers are actually like hiding you and keeping you a secret.
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They don't want you bumping into them.
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You're walking down some hallway,
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and they're like, ~ they've got a headset on.
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They're like, they pull you out of the way,
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put you in a room for a second.
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You're on their way, they put you in a room.
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Coast is clear. Okay, and then you can go out and go down the hall again.
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It's so funny, but
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They take it very seriously and ~ they do a great job.
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So it's it's pretty amazing.
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I was gonna say they they definitely complimented you,
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you know, mentioning how brilliant you were.
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~ what, you know, once you ended that performance,
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that set, like how were you feeling?
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Like were you completely overwhelmed or was it you did you like black out?
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Like how did that go?
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Well, it's funny because that routine is so complicated and so difficult.
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There's 35 magic effects in five minutes.
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And so, and everything is sort of layered on top of one of another in terms
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of you know the the the way the time is stacked.
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And you're like, if one thing goes,
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if the third thing goes wrong,
22:24
it's sort of like a Jenga tower where you're pulling out the blocks,
22:27
the whole thing is gonna have a problem.
22:29
So ~ you know, fortunately, before you shoot live.
22:34
For pen and teller and for the live audience,
22:37
they do something called ~ a camera rehearsal,
22:40
where they bring you out there,
22:42
there's nobody in the audience yet.
22:43
It's just the stage crew and the seven cameras and all the stuff.
22:48
And you run through it with the music and everything,
22:50
and they catch that. And that way you've kind of got a B-roll in case
22:56
if something goes wrong, they're actually able to edit that where they would maybe
23:00
cut to pen and teller for a reaction shot.
23:03
And then cut back to you, splice in that moment that looks good,
23:07
and then cut to an audience, and then cut back to you,
23:10
and now you're back into the regular set,
23:12
you know. ~ so that gives you a little bit of comfort,
23:15
and my camera rehearsal went fine.
23:18
~ I felt like, okay, no matter what,
23:21
we're gonna have something they can,
23:23
you know, they're gonna have something that they can shoot,
23:25
~ something they can show. But afterwards I was really happy.
23:30
~
23:32
Pen Julette stays out in the house and kind of tells jokes to
23:35
the audience when they're preparing for the next act.
23:38
But Teller comes backstage and meets you and talks to you.
23:42
And he's between the two of them,
23:44
you know, Penn is the more like showman and actor,
23:49
you know, guy. And Teller is the one of the ~ most incredible minds that magic
23:56
has ever produced. I mean, he knows everything.
23:59
And this is what makes it so difficult.
24:00
I mean, the two of them together.
24:02
you know, the two of the greatest minds in magic ever.
24:04
It's impossible to think about fooling them.
24:07
But but Teller especially has the the deepest knowledge of anyone ~ you know,
24:13
in in history probably with with magic.
24:16
So but that was really great to be able to talk to him for a few minutes
24:19
and and he was like, I loved it.
24:20
And I saw the Slidini influence and I saw this.
24:22
And he totally knew what I was doing.
24:24
but but just to have him sort of be on board with it and be excited about it,
24:28
that was really fun.
24:29
it has to be such a great compliment to receive something like that from
24:32
I mean Penn and Teller everybody kind of knows them and to be to to be
24:37
to be called brilliant and to be praised for that.
24:40
I mean, that shows just how much incredible work you're doing on stage
24:45
to bring delight to people, but also just to put your love into this to magic.
24:50
Well, even more more ~ importantly to me,
24:53
it was it really helped us sort of land the gig at the Broadway Comedy Club because,
24:57
you know, if you if your if your sales pitch is,
25:01
hey, we've we've got this show and we're really good and just put us in there,
25:06
it's kind of like, ~ all right,
25:08
maybe. But you say, I was just on Penn and Teller Fool Us last month,
25:11
you know. ~ all right. And then they think,
25:14
even if nobody's ever heard of him really,
25:16
they've heard of that show. So they could put the logo.
25:18
Right.
25:19
And then people see it and they go,
25:20
~ I know that show. Sure, I'll go see that.
25:22
And that's one of the great things is they tell us,
25:25
you know, use this performance and use that video clip to take your career
25:31
to the next level, you know. And and these days I think people probably more than
25:37
anything, if as far as at least magicians go,
25:40
it's like, do you have a TV credit?
25:42
Kind of it's kind of a thing. It's kind of like,
25:45
you know, until you until you have that,
25:47
it's really hard.
25:49
~ to sell somebody on coming and seeing a show they haven't heard of,
25:52
you know.
25:53
For
25:53
sure. And speaking of that show,
25:55
'cause you're currently bringing magic right to the heart of NYC with
25:57
the Broadway Magic Hour, how did that that show kind of come to be?
26:02
And also what is kind of you talked about that that narrative with that through
26:06
point. What is kind of the through point for for the show?
26:09
Well, the way it came to be was my friend Carl Mercurio and I,
26:13
we've all b always both had a love for family magic.
26:17
And it's something that in New York City you don't see a lot of.
26:20
There are probably 14 magic shows running in New York City,
26:24
live magic shows right now. They tend to be late night shows that start
26:29
at nine o'clock or 10 o'clock.
26:31
They're for adults only. Some of them even say 21 and over,
26:34
only admitted. and a few years ago when I was in Las Vegas.
26:40
~ I went to David Copperfield's show and I walk in there,
26:43
and he is the largest grossing magician of all time.
26:48
He is literally a billionaire from doing magic.
26:51
I mean, it's it's boggles the mind,
26:53
but he's he's one of the most successful entertainers of all time.
26:57
And I go to his show and I see eight-year-olds,
27:02
10-year-olds, 15-year-olds, 30-year-olds,
27:04
70-year-olds, everybody of all ages was there.
27:07
It wasn't
27:09
21 and up, and it wasn't a kids' show.
27:12
It was families. I would see three generations at one table.
27:15
And I started thinking, why is this not happening in New York City?
27:19
I mean, obviously David Copperfield knows a thing or two about magic shows.
27:23
Why is this not going on in New York?
27:25
So it was already in my mind. And then I happened to be talking to Rich Brooks,
27:30
who is the talent director at the Broadway Comedy Club.
27:33
And I was saying, you know, maybe we should,
27:35
maybe we should do a magic show there.
27:37
And he goes,
27:38
I've always thought a family magic show would do extremely well here.
27:42
Put it on at two o'clock in the afternoon when we don't have anything else.
27:45
Because they start the shows at four,
27:47
the comedy shows. They go all the way till one in the morning,
27:49
but they didn't have anything earlier in the afternoon.
27:52
So the place is empty. And think and he's thinking,
27:55
I can open up a new time slot.
27:57
But also, it was just a super,
27:58
super good idea. And we so we said,
28:02
Okay, we'll we'll try it. And he goes,
28:04
How many tickets do you think you can sell?
28:05
I'm like,
28:06
I don't know. I'm like, dude, I'm going to be very honest with you.
28:08
Five, twenty, fifteen. I don't really know.
28:11
It could be anything. He goes,
28:13
well, we'll put it on. We'll see.
28:14
They put the ticket, they put the show on their website,
28:18
and within 72 hours, the whole room of 180 seats had sold out.
28:22
And I'm like, what is going on?
28:25
And and he sent me the spreadsheet of the ticket buyers.
28:27
These were not friends and family.
28:29
I didn't know any of these folks.
28:30
And I'm like, wow, this is crazy.
28:32
So we do the show. Everybody loved it.
28:35
He says, let's do it again. We st we start.
28:37
And other guys I know who have chosen the city,
28:40
they said the first one is easy to sell out.
28:42
It's after that it gets harder.
28:43
I'm like, I don't know. And the next one sold out,
28:46
the next one, the next one. And we've been running two years,
28:48
selling out every weekend. So all I can say is it fills a need.
28:52
~ you know, we see a lot of grandparents bringing grandchildren.
28:57
And I was thinking about that too.
29:00
And it's sort of like, you know,
29:01
I have children and I know,
29:05
Their grandparents, my parents,
29:06
live in Alabama. So they don't see the kids that often.
29:09
They see them a couple of times a year.
29:10
And I know when they're first reintroduced to the kids after being away from them
29:15
for six months or whatever, it's like,
29:17
well, how's school? ~ how's the baseball team?
29:22
You know, and like these sort of like generic questions.
29:24
But if you can take that kid and say,
29:27
Let's go see a magic show, first of all,
29:29
the kid's gonna put down the electronics and go.
29:32
And then secondly, now you have something really interesting
29:35
to talk about afterwards. How did that kid float in the air?
29:38
I mean, I didn't see any strings.
29:40
Dude, he passed a hoop. There was no strings.
29:42
I mean, what is going on? And the kids can have their theories and
29:46
you can really engage and you have a lifetime memory.
29:50
And I think that's but one of the reasons the show is really popular.
29:53
RJ, I think you can attest to this too,
29:54
that, you know, having gone to Broadway so many times,
29:57
there's not always like a f as many family friendly programs out there.
30:02
You know, we see a lot of shows and a lot of them you would not want
30:04
to take your kid to. or maybe you shouldn't take your kid to,
30:07
but this sounds like this is truly something that is for the whole family.
30:11
hundred percent. You know, one funny thing too is is at first,
30:15
~ we started thinking, wow, you know,
30:18
we want to have people where they can come back.
30:20
Should we, you know, change everything from week to week?
30:23
Although we didn't really want to,
30:24
because once you get the show dialed in,
30:26
you kind of you're happy with it.
30:27
And it does change a little bit weekly,
30:30
but if you saw the show a year ago and you see it now,
30:32
there'll be several things different,
30:33
but from week to week it stays basically the same.
30:35
And then I I realized when my wife and I went and saw Hamilton several years ago.
30:41
We of course just loved it so much.
30:44
And then we come home, we're like immediately we have to bring our kids.
30:46
Kids, you gotta see Hamilton. You won't even believe it.
30:49
We get tickets. And it was like months later that we went because it takes
30:53
so long to for the to get the tickets.
30:55
And ~ and I and I was thinking,
30:58
my gosh, if they had come out and done a bunch of different songs
31:01
and different routines, I would have been like,
31:03
No, no, no, I wanna see the thing that we liked.
31:05
You know, I want to see those songs again.
31:07
So I think I think that's
31:10
It makes sense to keep the show the same,
31:12
you know?
31:12
Yeah, that makes sense. Like that the familiarity of something that
31:16
you really enjoy, like it's reliable,
31:19
right? Like especially in a city that does,
31:22
yeah, have shows that are doing the same thing ~ you know,
31:26
daily. I'm curious,
31:29
because there's obviously like you mentioned,
31:31
like so many different shows happening in the space,
31:36
like what do you think differentiates your show ~
31:41
to help bring in that kind of multi-generational ~ dynamic.
31:48
Well, there's a lot of things.
31:49
I mean, we we try to distinguish our show in every way possible because
31:55
we feel like one of the ways that you survive is by offering something that nobody
32:00
else is offering. You know, it's a unique thing that you can only see with us.
32:04
So even starting with the pricing,
32:06
for example, ~ you know, if you want to take a family of four to
32:10
a Harry Potter play, it's gonna cost a thousand dollars,
32:13
probably, right? ~ right, right.
32:15
Easy.
32:16
Uh-huh.
32:16
And
32:18
and with us, you know, we our ticket prices start at $25 and
32:24
go up to $50, okay? Which is such a bargain.
32:28
~ in mid in Midtown, in the in the theater district,
32:30
it is unbelievable. And, you know,
32:33
we did this because we looked at the at the pricing in the other venues.
32:36
And like, let's say the closest show to ours,
32:39
I would say, is Jamie Allen's Amaze.
32:41
Although his is a very deluxe theatrical production with you know,
32:45
lasers and all this, you know.
32:47
very heavy produced show and we're in a comedy club so but his
32:53
his lowest ticket price starts slightly higher than our highest ticket price
32:58
so we've we've got our own lane on pricing and then secondly our show
33:03
is all about an emer being an immersive kind of experience we're calling people
33:07
up from the audience kids adults moms dads mostly kids calling them
33:12
up almost for every single routine getting them involved help having them help with
33:16
the magic
33:17
And that's one of the things that makes the show very unique every time
33:21
is when you have a kid on stage,
33:23
totally unpredictable what the kid is going to say or do.
33:27
And everyone loves this. I love it,
33:29
everybody loves it because you know,
33:32
sometimes that kid will just say something that just brings the house down.
33:36
And it's just such a joy and such a thing.
33:38
At our very first show, we did the typical thing that you hear at most shows where
33:43
they say, All right, everybody.
33:45
Please silence your cell phones,
33:46
turn your cell phone off, put it away.
33:48
No cameras, no pictures, no recording.
33:50
And then I went home after the first show and I'm like,
33:54
did anybody get pictures? I want to post them online.
33:56
And I'm like, you dummy, you just had 200 people in there.
33:59
They all had phones. So the very next time we did a show,
34:00
Yeah.
34:04
we had the announcer say, Here at the Broadway Magic Hour,
34:06
we encourage the use of cameras.
34:08
Take photos, take videos, but do so in a way that doesn't distract others.
34:12
And if you post your photos online,
34:15
Tag us at hashtag Broadway Magic Hour.
34:17
And you know, people come go home from the show and you've got like a PR crew.
34:22
They're they're sending out to their own networks and they're posting stuff.
34:25
And none of the other magic shows do this.
34:29
I tell them, I'm like, you are crazy.
34:31
They're I'm worried somebody's gonna put the whole show online.
34:34
No, they're not. They nobody wants to watch your show for an hour online anyway.
34:38
If they want to watch your show,
34:39
they want to go see it live. They'll post a clip,
34:41
you know, but I don't know. It's so funny.
34:45
No, I think you're right too about the how people digest things on the internet.
34:49
They wanna see they wanna see thirty seconds,
34:51
sixty seconds. They're not gonna sit and watch a whole,
34:53
you know, hour show typically I should say.
34:56
but that's also genius.
34:58
Well, you if somebody
34:59
did put the whole show on YouTube or something,
35:01
I would sit I would DM them a little message and say,
35:03
Hey, this is Jim from the show.
35:04
We'd appreciate it if you take it down.
35:06
And if they didn't, I'm sure they would,
35:08
99% would. And if they didn't,
35:09
you just send a thing to YouTube and say it's copyrighted.
35:12
You know, take it, you know, and they would take it down.
35:13
Right.
35:15
But you don't really don't have to worry about it.
35:18
You know, I think that when you talked about how like the anticipation
35:22
of audiences of change with social media,
35:23
that sounds like one of the benefits of it though too,
35:25
though, is having when they're when you they're taking the clips
35:28
or they're posting about it online,
35:29
you mentioned kind of like you their your own little PR firm kind of taking it away.
35:33
That does probably make it easier to get the word out there about your show.
35:36
It's so true. And I feel like the show doesn't just live on the stage.
35:42
That's part of it. That's a really big that's the that's the heart of it.
35:45
But the show also continues on social media.
35:49
And I think you really have to look at the you know,
35:52
I I think so many so many old school theatrical performers,
35:56
you know, they think that that they've got this
36:01
this live event and that that's all it is and that that's all it should be.
36:05
And I just don't believe that at all.
36:07
I think it really ~ because I know my for my kids,
36:10
if it didn't happen on Instagram,
36:12
it didn't happen. You know? So
36:14
True, right?
36:17
So with this show then, having made this this show for families and stuff like that,
36:23
which what trick without giving away,
36:25
obviously we don't want to give away the magic trick here,
36:27
but what which one are you either like the most proud of,
36:29
or which one do you feel like dazzles audience the most,
36:31
or which one like kind of would you say defines this experience?
36:35
my gosh, there's just so many.
36:37
I mean, it's one of the things that Carl and I talk about a lot is that is that,
36:42
you know, every moment is it sets sets up for another moment later.
36:48
There's kind of like this payoff,
36:49
but it's actually setting you up for a bigger payoff later.
36:53
But I will say, you know, in answer to your question,
36:55
there the most challenging thing for us to figure out was
37:01
the very first opening effect.
37:04
And we tried several different things.
37:06
And it and the show was never terrible when we,
37:09
even when we had a subpar opener,
37:11
in our estimation, looking back,
37:13
subpar at the time, the best we could do.
37:14
But at the but it took us a while.
37:17
And finally, ~ one day I had ~ had an idea and I brought
37:23
it to Carl and he thought about it and he came back to me with another twist on it,
37:28
and then that made me have another thing.
37:30
This is the other thing about having two.
37:32
Two people working on a show together is it sort of starts to be like a flywheel,
37:37
you know, where, my gosh, that idea made me think of this,
37:39
that made me think of that, and boom,
37:40
boom, boom, boom, boom. And then by the time that we had completely dissected what
37:46
this could be, which took two or three days of back back and forth,
37:50
we had something that not only was going to be
37:55
the perfect lightning fast opening effect to get everyone involved and put
38:01
Also put parents at ease, knowing,
38:03
okay, this show is going to be good.
38:05
You know, is I'm not this is not going to be lame.
38:08
This is not going to be boring.
38:10
I'm going to be fooled by this.
38:12
I'm going to be into it. It's not just for the kids.
38:14
You have to address so many things and set up your characters.
38:17
You know, my character believes in magic.
38:19
Carl's character is more of a skeptic.
38:21
~ I always think about it as my character is a little bit more like Doug Henning,
38:25
if you know who he is, and his is a little bit more like Harry Anderson,
38:28
if you know who he is, right? So.
38:30
You have the these two and those are the two sides of the coin of magic,
38:34
you know, is is wonder and belief on one side and trick and method
38:39
on the other side. And so ~ but but that opening routine,
38:43
which ~ we make a bowling ball appear,
38:46
okay, but it it it happens in such a surprising way and such a
38:50
way that's that's unexpected, and a way that defines both of our characters,
38:54
that the very first time we did it and the and the room just
38:59
exploded. The response was explosive.
39:02
We just knew that that was it.
39:03
And I can't imagine opening the show any other way now.
39:07
So it's just so much fun.
39:09
That's so awesome.
39:10
And, you know, with this show,
39:12
I know you kind of mentioned ~ earlier on some of the themes throughout.
39:18
~ is there any particular thing that you're hoping,
39:22
you know, as your audience is walking away from the show,
39:25
something specific that they're taking with them?
39:29
Totally. ~ and it's really our whole reason for doing the show.
39:33
you know, I have to kind of backtrack a little bit by mentioning that
39:37
one of my great mentors in magic was a man named Eugene Berger.
39:41
And he was one of the greatest,
39:43
close up magicians of all time.
39:45
He was also a philosopher, and you know,
39:48
people really think of him as the philosopher of magic.
39:50
He has passed away now, but but he was just an unbelievable
39:55
~ force in magic. And about twenty years ago.
40:00
I was studying with him and I was doing some card tricks and some stuff that
40:06
I was working on. And he kind of watched and he kind of looks
40:13
at me and goes, Jim, do you believe in magic?
40:14
And I'm like, no, Eugene, what are you talking about?
40:18
These are card tricks. No, no,
40:19
don't be silly. What are you talking about?
40:20
He goes, We're magicians. And if we don't believe in magic,
40:25
who will? And I went.
40:26
Whoa, whoa, I'm like, all right,
40:28
I have to think about this. And then he went even further and he said he said,
40:33
just because there's a trick to it.
40:35
Doesn't mean it's not real magic.
40:37
The magic happens inside the person's head who is watching.
40:43
And so if real magic happens here,
40:46
that's all that matters. Real magic happened.
40:49
So I sort of having to rethink everything.
40:51
I love that.
40:53
Not even just magic, but just like even things in my life.
40:57
I was thinking, wow, you know,
40:58
this if magic is if if I can believe in magic,
41:01
that makes everything different.
41:03
And
41:04
So we do want people to believe in magic.
41:07
And what does that what does it mean?
41:08
~ believe the trick that I did was really magic.
41:11
No. What it means is I mean, magic to me is you can honestly do anything
41:17
in your life that you want to.
41:18
I mean, do you think Barack Obama ever expected to be president
41:22
of the United States? I mean, it's there's the the sky is not even the limit.
41:28
The sky is just the beginning.
41:29
I mean, the universe is the limit,
41:31
you know, and you can really do anything.
41:33
And
41:34
I always felt lucky because my parents,
41:37
what as I was growing up, always told me that and made and I believed it.
41:42
I never even had any question,
41:43
but I always wonder if there's some kid or even some parent that sees
41:48
our show that hasn't been told that or that doesn't,
41:53
or hasn't been told that by someone who actually believes it.
41:56
And we really do want people to leave feeling uplifted and feeling like.
42:03
Whatever problem I might be facing in my life,
42:05
I saw a guy do something so impossible today that can't be explained.
42:09
This problem that I have, I think can be solved.
42:12
You know, I just saw something else happen that cannot be solved.
42:16
So, ~ and believing in oneself.
42:19
So those are the those two messages and we and we we're never really preachy about
42:23
it, but we do we do drop it in at select moments during the the show
42:28
and we hope that it sticks.
42:30
That's such an incredible message and takeaway for people.
42:32
~ Jim, thank you so much for being here today with us.
42:36
It's been such a pleasure. But before we let you go,
42:38
where can people find out find you on the internet,
42:40
but also find out more about the show?
42:43
Broadway MagicHour.com is our website.
42:46
Also on Instagram at Broadway Magic Hour,
42:49
on Facebook at Broadway Magic Hour.
42:52
So pretty simple. I also have my own personal magic website,
42:55
which is jimvines.com. So people can check me out there as well.
42:58
But yeah, we hope that ~ you guys,
43:01
the next time you're in the city,
43:02
~ hit me up. I'll get you tickets to the show.
43:05
I know somebody who can get you in for free.
43:07
So that's for you guys. And
43:08
Ha ha.
43:10
And for all your listeners out there,
43:12
definitely come check us out. We ~ we just we love having people.
43:15
We have people from all over the world come to the show,
43:18
from Europe, from all from all over the states,
43:19
from everywhere. And ~ it's it's really,
43:22
especially if you have a family group with you,
43:24
you'll really love it.
43:25
Well, thanks to everyone listening for joining us here in our box seats.
43:31
Until next curtain call.