Latest / The Magic Guys / Sean Taylor on Creativity, Consulting & Reinvention #275
Transcript
- 0:01They're guys. They do magic. They are the Magic Guys.
- 0:12Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode.
- 0:16I can't sing because I wasn't in a band, but welcome to episode 275 of the Magic
- 0:23Guys. Today, we're running with the duo for our guest.
- 0:28And to my left we got Nick K that's right the B team the bald team hi friends I'm Nick K I think,
- 0:38I think our podcast is always the bald team right even when Doug is here yeah
- 0:42but when he's here it's the A team,
- 0:45which is stands for better than a B but if B is the bald team and we're all
- 0:51bald anyway when Doug's here what does have you been to high school Josh have
- 0:55you been to high school now someone's flexing someone's been to school as a kid.
- 1:02What a show-off someone was educated and probably fed as a child all right good
- 1:07to see everyone in the chat no I'm just kidding I did eat a lot as a kid and
- 1:12clearly am quite caffeinated now.
- 1:15We have a guest that people have been waiting a long time to see.
- 1:18Created a lot of effects, and we're going to get to him in a second because,
- 1:22Nick, you have a show on tonight at the Melbourne Magic Festival.
- 1:28That's right, friend.
- 1:30Yes, the Melbourne Magic Festival is officially in full swing.
- 1:33We actually had two full houses for Theatre of Magic on Saturday as well.
- 1:40We had 48 in the first show totally sold out in the second it was a great great
- 1:44show so like everyone is in town they are keen to see magic we had the gala last night
- 1:50so and my show launches two nights at 6 30 p.m in the cardini theater at the
- 1:56arrow on swanson so you can still get your tickets
- 1:59at melbourne magic festival.com as well as a bunch of other amazing acts that
- 2:03are there we can speak to that in a little bit,
- 2:05but by all means do check out the lineup it's going to be amazing yeah and,
- 2:11i think with that being said we're about ready to launch into our interview
- 2:14what do you say josh absolutely i got my fingers at the ready take us away nick.
- 2:20Friends, today's guest is one of Australia's most respected professional entertainers.
- 2:25Originally from the UK, he's spent four decades performing magic in almost every
- 2:30environment imaginable.
- 2:32We're talking close-up shows, we're talking family shows, corporates,
- 2:36mind reading, you name it.
- 2:38He has a reputation as being one of Australia's most premier corporate entertainers.
- 2:42He's one of my personal favorite entertainers and also an amazing creator.
- 2:46He's lectured, he's resumes as long as my arm. his lecture has been done in
- 2:5112 different countries and these days he's helping magicians take their performances
- 2:54to the next level by consulting
- 2:57which is making me wonder if i should beg him to take me on as well and help
- 3:00me create some beautiful magic as well because when it comes to material and
- 3:04scripting and pacing and all of a theatrical experience this is the guy,
- 3:09we want to talk to so friends please join me in welcoming mr sean taylor.
- 3:32Hey, Sean Taylor, welcome to the Magic Guys podcast. Please tell everyone who
- 3:37are you and what do you do?
- 3:39Morning, afternoon, evening, wherever you are listening to this, watching this.
- 3:43I'm Sean Taylor and I'm a British magician, but I've lived in Australia for
- 3:47the last, well, almost 35 years in fact. And yeah, this is why I'm here.
- 3:54So this is the thing, you've been doing this for 40 years and what's clicked
- 3:59you performing, my guy? Like a lot of folks kind of ring out at some point.
- 4:04You obviously have a passion for it. For those watching live on YouTube,
- 4:07there is hundreds of magic books behind him, which I assume most of that knowledge
- 4:12is held within that beautiful cranium of yours.
- 4:14But how things are done is not as important as why things are being done.
- 4:18Like, what is it that keeps you going?
- 4:20Yeah, that's a great question. I've always loved magic right from the time I was a very small kid.
- 4:27But the thing that keeps me going is the excitement of trying to bring new things
- 4:35to my audience, new experiences to my audiences.
- 4:38And the world's changed a lot too. People's concentration spans are very different.
- 4:43The style of magic I've changed quite a bit over time.
- 4:47And I think as I've got older, different types of magic have found me.
- 4:50It's not so much that I've found them, but they probably suit my personality
- 4:54more than, you know, it's pretty hard to do mentalism when you're a 22-year-old
- 4:58kid, but once you start losing your hair, you guys will know about that,
- 5:03then it sort of gets easier, right?
- 5:06Hey, I just want to say this is my choice. Thanks for joining us, John.
- 5:12You know, it's really interesting, Sean. Can I share a question that was asked
- 5:14to me personally on my socials and on our Discord? If you guys have been scoped
- 5:19out, we're a good community and we do help each other. But I was asked this
- 5:22question that you just brought up a moment ago.
- 5:24Somebody asked me kind of blatantly, and it sounds almost weird when I reiterate
- 5:28what was said to me, but the question was quite blatantly, how do I develop personality?
- 5:33And I'll explain what I said to get the ball rolling.
- 5:37And what I said was, look at, and he was young. Okay. So we got to take that
- 5:40into consideration and you got to spend some time finding yourself,
- 5:44but because we typically start off as mimics. So when I was asked,
- 5:49how do I develop my personality?
- 5:51My advice was this, look at who you are now, look at who you want to be,
- 5:56and then see what you can do to bridge that gap and what needs to happen in order to get there.
- 6:02Because you might have a destination as to where you want to go,
- 6:06but in that journey, you will find yourself and you will find what feels right
- 6:10you will make mistakes along the way for sure but that was the advice i gave
- 6:13this person so i'm going to present the question to yourself and to you as well josh,
- 6:17what's your advice on finding that personality or stage persona even.
- 6:24You want me to go first i would love you to go first yeah yeah because i mean,
- 6:29we want to hear from you sean for sure i'm gonna cool so there's there's a great,
- 6:34there's a great quote by senator crandall and,
- 6:37the guys from the long beach mystics were went to the castle and uh they they,
- 6:42they saw senator crandall who was you know one of the the most famous magicians
- 6:46of his day they went backstage and they said you know what what's your advice for us starting out,
- 6:51and he said something like and this is this is the way i've read it he said
- 6:55something like get people to like you,
- 6:58tell them a story and then show them a trick,
- 7:01and if you get really good drop the trick which i think is brilliant.
- 7:06And to me it's you know magic is a conversation with your audience in some way
- 7:11or other the trick needs to be kind of incidental to that because it like when
- 7:15you're in sales people buy from people they don't buy from from a company and so,
- 7:21it's the same in magic they it's about,
- 7:24you and the best advice i've seen for the and you know as a close-up worker,
- 7:30when you when you start out you've got that awkward moment when you're going
- 7:33to walk up to a table and i know you guys have discussed that a little bit and there's a,
- 7:38there's a great piece of advice in the simon lovell book where he talks about you know try,
- 7:44walking up to tables and engaging the people at the table without doing a trick,
- 7:50So kind of test yourself to see if you can, you know, walk up to a table,
- 7:55introduce yourself, get the conversation going, but don't actually do magic.
- 7:59You know, don't start with, have you dropped this red pen knife or,
- 8:03you know, one of those kind of hack type things, you know, is this your sponge
- 8:06ball or whatever it happens to be.
- 8:08Just practice starting conversations with people. And I think that that's really good advice.
- 8:15And it's something that I've used with a lot of people that I've worked with
- 8:20over the years, you know, engaging.
- 8:23And that's going to build your personality. It's going to build your engagement.
- 8:27Yeah, I think that's a bloody perfect answer. I think a comedian,
- 8:32I've heard a few people say this, that in the comedy world, they say like.
- 8:37It'll take 10 years for you to figure out who you really are as a comic,
- 8:41and i feel like that's also similar with magic like now that i've i've passed
- 8:46the like doing magic for a living for more than 10 years now i feel like i'm
- 8:50only now really figuring out how to really,
- 8:55deliver an experience to like a gig like now i'm really more relaxed and will
- 9:00be more conversational because i'm not so worried that they're,
- 9:05not going to think I'm a good magician or whatever.
- 9:06Like I know the magic's going to be what it is.
- 9:10And like, how can I now, I can relax a bit and I can like be a bit more of a human around it.
- 9:16And, but it took me so long to realize that. Like I always used to be like,
- 9:19all right, have my flash paper ready. I've got the thing in my sleeve.
- 9:23Let's go up and let's quickly do some stuff.
- 9:26But now I don't have to like rush into it. Now they will sometimes get to the
- 9:31point of asking, like I've been talking to them for a little while now,
- 9:34where that now they say, oh, so what do you do here at the company?
- 9:37And I'm like, oh, wait, no, no, sorry.
- 9:39I'm hired to entertain you. Let me, let me show you. And then we get into it.
- 9:44But sometimes I think my answer to what I should have just said at the beginning
- 9:48is sometimes you just got to like do tons of gigs and get a stage time and you'll
- 9:52slowly like reveal who you are and be able to do that stuff.
- 9:59I agree with that as well. And I think that one of the things I see,
- 10:01especially, Joanne, I'm sure that you've seen this as well, where people who
- 10:04have been performing for a very long time will come to people like yourself
- 10:07and they will say things to the effect of, oh, I want to reinvent myself.
- 10:10I want to re-this myself.
- 10:13It's an interesting way to think about it because i i was trying to understand
- 10:16how they got stuck in that place to begin with and i feel that it's for a couple
- 10:21of reasons i think one might be that they don't perform frequently enough that
- 10:26the evolution happens naturally.
- 10:29And that they they just when you perform so often you change every show like
- 10:33without realizing it it might be point zero zero zero two percent but when you
- 10:37do like 20 tables in an hour or whatever it might be you You know what I mean?
- 10:42Like that increment is quite good.
- 10:45And then I also think it's for people who refuse to change.
- 10:49So there's like, it's like two paths, like you grow a little bit or you just
- 10:53refuse to change what you do and you get left behind. And then you get to a
- 10:56point where you have to actively say, Oh, I need to reinvent myself.
- 11:00I'm sure you've seen this a lot in, with the amount of people you've helped over the years. Yeah.
- 11:05Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the challenges with it is that people get bored.
- 11:09You know, they're doing the same material all the time. And if you're doing
- 11:12close-up and you're doing, you know, 20 tables every night and you're doing
- 11:16the same five tricks, whatever it might be, three tricks, you get bored.
- 11:21And you want new challenges and you want to sort of freshen things up because
- 11:25you find yourself going, you're just repeating the same stuff.
- 11:29And I think there are some good strategies to avoid getting bored.
- 11:34And again, to me, it's about the conversation. It's, it's about just having
- 11:38a conversation with people and then the magic becomes part of that conversation
- 11:42rather than, you know, sort of standing there and delivering the same script every time. Yeah.
- 11:48You know if i could speak to something what i'm currently going through is this
- 11:51notion of having to be very vulnerable and what i mean by that is that there
- 11:55is so much comfort in performing the things that i've done for the past decade or so,
- 12:00i know they slay and i know them like i don't even have to think about them but then,
- 12:06when you push yourself to create and and give birth to things,
- 12:10like you're at this point now where it's like okay i've got this routine it's got so much potential,
- 12:15and it's gonna be great someday and every time you refuse to perform it or you're
- 12:19too afraid to perform it you are delaying it getting better and better and so
- 12:23i've come to this point in my career where,
- 12:27there's a lot of things that i want to perform for stage and the stage time
- 12:31here in melbourne is not as great as like your close-up time for example but
- 12:33i've just gone you know what i'm going to be vulnerable and sometimes this effect
- 12:37which is never the same every time it's like a q a style effect,
- 12:42i'm just gonna have to like suck it up and let it breathe and it's one of the
- 12:47most difficult things because i could just stay in my comfort zone and feel
- 12:51great about myself giving them something that i know is tried and tested,
- 12:55but that vulnerability is something that i really had to convince myself to
- 12:59do that and i guess the question to put in like to yourself is do you think
- 13:03that people should be doing that more and how should they be,
- 13:07doing it so that they can actually have beautiful new ideas evolve to the point
- 13:12where they are like their tenure.
- 13:15Install it next so i i think one of the problems with magic is and i'm first
- 13:20to say this but magicians are a large number of magicians are effectively tribute acts,
- 13:25so they've they've gone and grabbed a bunch of other people's material and they're
- 13:31delivering it you know with the same words and the same performance as as the
- 13:35people they bought it from,
- 13:37and it might be from you know they might have gone and bought it from a magic
- 13:40dealer or they may have seen it in a lecture or on a download or something and
- 13:45they've just they're just reproducing what they've seen,
- 13:48and those people i'm encouraging all of the time to put more of themselves into
- 13:55the effects and so that we we find out i think authenticity is a really good
- 14:00word if you come out and say you know when i was strolling down the street in
- 14:04india and it's very obvious that
- 14:06that's a story and that you've never strolled down the street in india
- 14:10then you know that sort of stuff it's very hard,
- 14:13to be authentic when you're using made-up stories and you're.
- 14:18Dishing the patter out that came with the effect.
- 14:21So I think authenticity is a really important thing.
- 14:24I can say that the day that I was packing for a show and,
- 14:31looked at all of the material and realized that everything I was going to be
- 14:35doing that night in that show was entirely my own,
- 14:40there was a sort of, it was an enormous feeling of pride and a sort of a joy
- 14:45in the fact that I've got stuff that I can go out and charge people serious
- 14:50money to see, and it's entirely my own.
- 14:53And and i think that's something to really strive for,
- 14:57there's nothing wrong with buying effects and going out and doing them nothing
- 15:01at all but the more you put of yourself into those effects and the more you put,
- 15:07yourself into the show the more you're going to lift yourself into the top 10
- 15:12you know there's a thing called sturgeon's law where you know apparently 90 of everything is crap,
- 15:18and you know i'd suggest if you go out and see a really good magic show you
- 15:22are seeing one of the top 10 you're seeing a 10 of people that have lifted themselves
- 15:29above the pack and that's where we need to get to.
- 15:33If we could circle back to something you sort of touched upon there is when
- 15:36we like my advice was people who are finding their personalities and they're
- 15:40where they are and where they want to be sometimes i meet performers who say
- 15:44things to the effect of like i want to be that,
- 15:46really debonair type magician and blah blah blah and you know have this type
- 15:50of thing it's like yeah i know you want to but like you you're not that person
- 15:55like you are so far from that person and so,
- 15:59it's interesting how you can go one of two ways i suppose you can be like that,
- 16:04lucy darling type character where you just go i disconnect and you're a guy
- 16:10who lives in a trailer but you're going to put yourself out there as a guy who
- 16:14owns a mansion and you're very affluent.
- 16:16Like that's the only way you're going to be able to get there.
- 16:19I assume is the advice on that one. Right.
- 16:22Yeah, and I think you need to find people that you trust to be honest with you.
- 16:29If you just surround yourselves with people who say you're great and,
- 16:33you know, they love everything you do and, you know, they're effectively friends
- 16:37of yours and they're just validating everything you do.
- 16:39And let's face it, that's what social media is, right? We're all looking for
- 16:42validation. Look at me, look at me.
- 16:44If you surround yourself with people that that are honest with you and they're
- 16:48prepared to tell you when you suck,
- 16:52then that that's going to help you to improve that's what you want you want
- 16:56people to say that sorry make that look shit that's what you want you want and
- 17:00you want the truth rather than you know this,
- 17:04constant praise and and i think that that's a way to improve,
- 17:08and find people that will help you describe what your character is what's my
- 17:13character you're a guy that looks like you should be doing x and and that will
- 17:18help you to to shape who you are and what you are,
- 17:23i think that's great advice that jeff hobson said that same thing and we don't
- 17:28do it enough do we like we don't just be vulnerable and say to people in real life,
- 17:33that we trust what do you think i I am as a magician, what do you think of me before knowing who I am?
- 17:42Like when i look at sean i'm like yeah he's the most knowledgeable guy in the
- 17:46world with his background of books behind him and i imagine that he you know,
- 17:51like doug could recite exactly where every effect is originated yeah,
- 17:56there is something about when you get any praise from sean taylor that it hits
- 18:00you hard and it tattoos your heart like in the biggest way i can't wait to experience
- 18:06that one day thanks thanks yeah,
- 18:09it's really great it's really great being me.
- 18:13Now because well for because the first time i ever lectured and we should talk
- 18:17about your lectures if we can just to segue into it well yeah you you met me,
- 18:21at the magic festival and,
- 18:23long story short somebody didn't come to like a gala it was the best of the
- 18:28fest like three acts and i was sitting
- 18:30in the audience and it was being hosted by nicholas j johnson friend of the
- 18:33pod and said nick can you get up and do some stuff because they're not here
- 18:36and i went sure and i literally
- 18:39grabbed a deck of cards i got the video footage of it actually i remember like
- 18:42i was just in a t-shirt i wasn't and i did some stuff and sean saw my performance and when that,
- 18:48that was like this is what aussie close-up is supposed to be,
- 18:52and i've asked if i would lecture at the the genie con which to this day is
- 18:57still the best convention we've we've ever done all of our all of our friends
- 19:01all of it we've done magic live under half a dozen times,
- 19:04that was the best like convention we've ever had it was the greatest so,
- 19:08yeah but that was the type of thing when you saw me do my thing and you know
- 19:13you told me like this is something that people need to see and understand and so,
- 19:17it was add high praise but we're talking lectures now you have so many and you
- 19:23speak upon so many things you speak upon children's shows corporate shows nlp even you know so.
- 19:32What what motivates you okay so let's i mean like you touch upon so many things
- 19:37do you just have that much knowledge in your head are you serious,
- 19:40are you literally a walking tarbell well i've been doing this for a long time
- 19:44right so i've published well over 200 tricks in in various forms over time and so,
- 19:51you know i i've got a range of stuff and and because i like to change up what I do.
- 19:58Most of the stuff that I publish, I've actually done. And I'm not just writing,
- 20:03tricks that I think people will like.
- 20:06I publish the stuff that I've actually done. So I've been out there and worked
- 20:10it to death and found out what the problems are and hopefully solved them.
- 20:13And so, yeah, that's the stuff I enjoy.
- 20:16I'd love to talk about theory in a lecture situation all the time,
- 20:20but people don't want that. They want tricks.
- 20:23And so when you go out with a lecture, You need probably eight or ten really good tricks.
- 20:29And I like to pepper them with the theory stuff because I think that's what
- 20:34makes it more interesting.
- 20:35Well, that actually leads into my next question. What sort of theories do you
- 20:38think are actually lacking from the knowledge of most bass magicians now?
- 20:43So when I started to do this, the last sort of seven or eight years,
- 20:49what I've been doing is working with other magicians.
- 20:52Generally either people who are doing close up now and want to do stage or they're
- 20:56doing stand-up stuff and they want to get better at it,
- 21:00and you can go on any facebook group or forum any day of the week and see somebody
- 21:05who's asking a question like what's the best book test or what's a really good
- 21:10comedy opener or you know how many tricks do i need for a 45 minute show
- 21:15all of those kind of questions, which to me are completely the wrong questions.
- 21:20They're starting at the wrong end. They're starting with the tricks.
- 21:24And you don't go out and buy 10 tricks and then try and make them into a show.
- 21:29You start at the other end.
- 21:31You say, what's my character? Who's my audience going to be?
- 21:35What kind of venues do I want to play?
- 21:37How do I speak? How do I dress? Am I going to work on a table or out of a box?
- 21:42Or how's that going to happen?
- 21:44Am I going to speak? And if I am going to speak, am I going to be funny?
- 21:46Am I going to be serious? Am I going to tell jokes? Or am I going to tell stories?
- 21:51What is the style of performance that I want to put together?
- 21:56Am I going to play for, and you guys have got these great theater of magic shows
- 22:02going on where you're playing to a certain size of a room. So you're going to
- 22:08look for material that's going to work in that size of a room.
- 22:12You're not going to wheel out an illusion or you're not going to do something
- 22:15that's super teeny tiny because people aren't going to be able to see it.
- 22:18You need stuff that's going to play in that, you know, what we like to call parlor type situation.
- 22:23So the questions that people ask themselves are the wrong questions in my view.
- 22:29And so that's why I started to offer my services to people and say,
- 22:35you know, if this is a thing that you want to do better, and let's face it,
- 22:38who doesn't, right? Who doesn't want to improve?
- 22:41If you don't want to get better, what you're saying is, I'm happy being in that
- 22:4590% of crap magicians. I don't, you know, I'm not caring about being in the
- 22:5010%. If you want to lift yourself into that 10%, then you need help.
- 22:54And whether you get it from me or whether you get it from somebody else, you need help.
- 22:57You need, you need people to contribute to what you're doing and whether that's
- 23:01a producer or a director, choreographer, for goodness sake, I don't know anything
- 23:05about choreography or lighting or, or, or tech or any of that stuff. That's not my thing.
- 23:11But you know, there's a skill set
- 23:13that I have that, that I, that I've been sharing and that's what I enjoy.
- 23:18Thinking about it from the other angle. Yeah. It's fine because we've done dedicated
- 23:22episodes on like where we hyper-focus on things like how to approach groups,
- 23:26how to, how to do this and that, how to like write a show.
- 23:29I actually got a message from another podcast just recently saying like,
- 23:33Hey, I have your lecture notes.
- 23:35Can I teach what you taught on your podcast to our Spanish podcast?
- 23:39And I was like, yeah, absolutely. Like this is what community should be about.
- 23:44You know, it's like, it was just really helpful to me and I want to share with the Spanish.
- 23:47And I'm like, absolutely let's do that you know so it's it's an interesting
- 23:52way to approach that because,
- 23:54you've worked with quite a few performers over time most recently would be,
- 23:58our friend Cameron Leo prior to that you worked with Harry Millis he and I've
- 24:02shared a stage together many a times and it's I'm just curious when people like
- 24:07do you choose them or do they come to you.
- 24:11It's happened both ways.
- 24:12Yeah. So I've offered my help out to people over time, but then sometimes they
- 24:18come to me. And then Cameron came to me with a really great idea for a stage show.
- 24:23He used to be in the police force. He worked undercover as a detective in the New South Wales police.
- 24:28And he wanted to build a show around that as a hook.
- 24:32I mean, it's a gift, right? Because it's such an interesting thing that,
- 24:37you know, we sort of know a bit about from watching TV detective shows,
- 24:41but we really don't know what they do and what goes on in there.
- 24:44And so if we can take elements of that and, you know, add some magic and mentalism
- 24:48to them, then suddenly we've got something that's really interesting. It's a great book.
- 24:52And that's why I was keen to get involved. I mean, you know,
- 24:55it just, it's a gift, something like that.
- 25:00And then folks like Harry, like what was the draw to him? I mean,
- 25:02like he's, I mean, I've seen him and I could probably see the,
- 25:05the shot, like the, the appeal, but I know that you were drawn to him.
- 25:09You, you put him on the radar a lot before I had an opportunity to meet him.
- 25:12So like, what are those things that you started?
- 25:15Well, look, the backstory with Harry is that he first came to the magic shop
- 25:20when he's with his mom, when he was about eight.
- 25:22And so I've known him since he was a kid and, and Cam, in fact,
- 25:27um, I've known since he was a kid.
- 25:28A kid as well he also used to come to the magic shop when he was a kid and so
- 25:33i've known these guys for a long time and harry would come to the magic shop
- 25:37every week with his mom and spend his pocket money and then over time we gave
- 25:41him a bit of work and then he,
- 25:44started to work more and more in the shop and and we we struck up a friendship
- 25:48and we've been mates have since and yeah we've spend a lot of time together and and harry has.
- 25:56Had an extraordinary success overseas in the united states with a with a touring
- 26:00close-up show that's been likened to the work of ricky jay,
- 26:04which i think this is fantastic i mean to be you know in the same sentence as
- 26:08ricky jay from people you respect is you know and there were people that were
- 26:12literally flying across the country to see his show which is extraordinary,
- 26:17he's done a couple of festivals,
- 26:19yes yeah and he's He's done stuff in Chicago, Magic Lounge, I think, as well.
- 26:23And not to seek praise, but just so that there's a magician that the audience
- 26:27would know, myself. You...
- 26:30I have to just say this out of thanks and I was going to do this off air,
- 26:33but I may as well do it here. And I just wanted to say like,
- 26:35I kind of, I really appreciate you like for believing in me long before I believed in myself.
- 26:41And so that's a big personal thank you that I wanted to share with our audience
- 26:44today before we go on to some of the audience questions.
- 26:47But I was, I never asked the question to you, like, what is it that you saw
- 26:50in me that, that like made you believe me before i believed in myself,
- 26:56wow that's a great question and i think that the key for me that on that night where i first saw you,
- 27:03the timing of the work that you were doing and the pacing of the work that you
- 27:09were doing that night and the way that you played with the audience and the
- 27:13the fact that you'd obviously done that stuff,
- 27:17so many times you know the the,
- 27:21the things that you do around,
- 27:24misdirection, the loading the card under the box,
- 27:27you know, that, that it was obvious to me watching you do it that night.
- 27:30And the fact that you had no prep time whatsoever, they literally wheeled you
- 27:34out, as you say, in a t-shirt and a cap. I think you were channeling Josh on
- 27:38that night. You had a baseball cap on from memory.
- 27:43But yeah, just, just to see the way that you were handling the timing and the
- 27:48misdirection and, and the fact that you were jazzing and playing with it and
- 27:52taking the opportunities as they were presented to you i thought
- 27:55this guy's flipping nailing this and that that was that was what attracted me in the,
- 27:59in the first place and and every time i've seen you it's been that more more and more of that,
- 28:06i was there was a particular story we've shared on the pod about when we did
- 28:10the theater of magic and we had that particular nightmare audience uh you were yeah,
- 28:15You were there in the audience. And yeah, it was, we had an entire row of just,
- 28:22nightmare people for all myriad of reasons.
- 28:25And yeah, I was sharing the stage up as a world champions of magic,
- 28:29you know, Martin and Christian Grace.
- 28:32And then I had to follow their acts and deal with these, these messy, messy people.
- 28:38And like, yeah, it was that type of thing that, yeah, like it was great.
- 28:42I was really glad that you got to see that, you know, and see how it works.
- 28:45But let's circle into some comments because we have questions.
- 28:49The first one from Matty Matt Magic. What does it say, Josh?
- 28:54All right. So we got, do you have any direct advice for transitioning from a
- 28:59magician who's doing gigs in close-up or stand-up to switching to stage magic?
- 29:05Yeah, and that's a great question. so the the first thing i think you should
- 29:10be doing is getting yourself to a point where you can do some stand-up tricks
- 29:16at your close-up gigs so have,
- 29:20have some stuff that you can scale up be prepared i've always taken stand-up
- 29:25stuff to a close-up gig close-up stuff to a stand-up gig so that you're ready
- 29:29to do that if someone says can you just do something for everyone and
- 29:33you've got that stuff that you can switch into.
- 29:35So get yourself 10 minutes of stuff that you can do anywhere for anybody and start doing that.
- 29:41Don't try and write a 45-minute show and start doing it for money straight away. It's going to kill you.
- 29:47It's not going to work. So yeah, start small, build from there.
- 29:51Start small, build from there. Perfect. Our next question comes from Southpawmagic.one.
- 29:58What is your approach to developing your routines?
- 30:02So I think the first thing that you need for any routine is a premise, a premise of an effect.
- 30:08I think you should generally start with the effect first.
- 30:12That doesn't always happen. Sometimes I see an idea or a method or something
- 30:19where I say, what can I do with that? Where can I take that?
- 30:23It's the basis of a good idea.
- 30:26It's a move or it's a concept or it's a method.
- 30:29And I say, What could I do with that that's better than what people are doing with it now?
- 30:34And so many things end up being a card trick, right? You know,
- 30:39you see something in an office store or Ikea or, you know, something you say,
- 30:44I could make a card trick out of that and everything ends up being a card trick.
- 30:47Whereas I'm looking at card tricks and saying, how can I make this not a card
- 30:51trick? How can I make that into something more interesting?
- 30:57I think you told us a story. You were on an airplane and you were tearing up
- 31:00two napkins. Yes. Yeah. And that was an epiphany. Yeah.
- 31:07That's right. What's that about? I'm unaware of this. It's my magazine test. Yeah.
- 31:15I was on a Qantas flight and I had a napkin and I was making notes on the napkin.
- 31:22And i decided to tear the napkin up into smaller pieces and what i realized was that,
- 31:28when you do that if you have the same information on both sheets and because
- 31:33it was a napkin that ink was bleeding through when you tear it up you're effectively
- 31:39making a mini tackle deck
- 31:41so those pieces of paper become pairs,
- 31:46so you have the same stuff twice and that was the idea that i started with which
- 31:51eventually ended up becoming my magazine test,
- 31:55wow crazy so it didn't become a country no it didn't become a country.
- 32:02Yeah, but generally for our question for Southpaw, it's, yeah,
- 32:07think of the effect first when you're developing your routines.
- 32:12Yeah, and I've done this with Cameron and the detective, the undercover magic show.
- 32:17We started to think about, you know, what the police do. They have police lineups.
- 32:22They have a sketch artist in the court that's drawing something.
- 32:26They have people who are learning how to tell whether someone's lying or telling the truth.
- 32:31You know, all of those kind of witnesses to crimes, you know,
- 32:35remembering things in a different way. So we had concepts that you might have,
- 32:41as a police officer, and we turned those into effects.
- 32:45And that's, you know, that's how we started with all the premise stuff in the
- 32:49world to then say, how can we make these into magic tricks?
- 32:53Wow. And then the last question, also from Southpaw, is people are very curious
- 32:59about your background, your physical background right now behind you.
- 33:02So for anyone who's just listening to this, he has, he told us there's about 800 books behind him.
- 33:08And Southpaw is asking, out of all those books, is there any one in particular
- 33:14that you find yourself coming back to a lot? Wow.
- 33:21My favorite book in Magic is Professional Secrets by Geoffrey Durham.
- 33:24It's not a book that you hear about a lot, but it's a guy who was absolutely
- 33:30at the top of his game touring the UK with a theater show, essentially telling
- 33:36you everything you need to know about that process.
- 33:40And I think it's an utterly brilliant book that you don't hear about often.
- 33:44But the in general the books that are written by people who are workers and
- 33:51have gone out and done the stuff i'd include my own books in that by the way
- 33:56because it's my it's my working material that i've published i think that is
- 34:01the stuff that you're looking for i recently bought the con over books i'm sure
- 34:04a lot of your listeners and watchers would have done the same,
- 34:08that was the stuff that conover was actually doing for real people and that's
- 34:11why i was you know very early on the list to put my name down to get those books,
- 34:16because that's the stuff that i like generally,
- 34:18you know it's it's fun to read books full of card tricks and there's plenty
- 34:22of them on those shelves over there but a lot of those are things that people
- 34:25have haven't done and and you know they're,
- 34:28they're there just because you can not because you should.
- 34:34It's funny because like yeah we've had book clubs and stuff and there's folks
- 34:37that just they froth for card tricks one after another and it's like it's fine
- 34:42but again i i look for inspiration from that and then try to find a way that's
- 34:46makes it tasty for myself you know,
- 34:49yeah it's and there's it's interesting because there's no real advice you can
- 34:53give on it where you hear something see something and go how do i make this
- 34:57my own or how do i give it my flavor it's like it's like cooking you know,
- 35:02I was talking to somebody the other night, and there's a great magician in the
- 35:05UK you may know called Ben Hart. Absolutely.
- 35:10Ben Hart took the egg on fan and made it into a mentalism prick.
- 35:16How does that even happen? Just saying that one sentence, you think to yourself, that's just insane.
- 35:22But he's he's done the you know the ultimate there in taking something that
- 35:27that is a really tried and tested,
- 35:31effect and turned it into something completely new brilliant,
- 35:35i love whenever you're creating and i've come across this personally a whole
- 35:38bunch of times where you start off with something and then where it ends is
- 35:41just worlds apart how often does that What happened for you with your creativity?
- 35:47A lot. One tip I would give people is to have a notebook.
- 35:52I know you can put stuff in your phone, I get that, but I carry a notebook with
- 35:56me everywhere because you want to, and I've got a small one that I can just
- 36:01put in a pocket and a bigger one that goes in my various briefcases. You need a notebook.
- 36:07Important that you you see ideas you see objects you see items you hear a funny
- 36:14story or a funny line something that potentially could be a premise for a trick
- 36:18and you write it down really important,
- 36:21i kind of want to ask is there anything that is currently in the cauldron brewing that you're willing.
- 36:30Exclusively with the magic guys podcast without giving too much things what's the thing,
- 36:38yeah let me let me introduce this by saying something that and this is a phrase
- 36:43that i use quite a lot when i'm talking to groups of magicians about stage magic magic's not a buffet,
- 36:51you don't go along to magic shows and help yourself to presentations or ideas
- 36:56or tricks from other people's acts that's not what you should be doing,
- 37:01and so it's it's a good idea to see magic and to see lots of magic but you need
- 37:07to see more than the tricks you need to see the pacing you need to see the rhythm you need to see,
- 37:15where people are going with ideas and how they're getting there what the journey looks like,
- 37:21and and i'll come back to that in a second because i've got a theory about watching
- 37:24magic shows and how you should do that and how it will help you,
- 37:28but in answer to your question what's brewing at the moment i'm working on the
- 37:32third volume of my mentalism books, Mindstorms and Mindcoaster were the first
- 37:37two. I got them right here.
- 37:39So these are the first two volumes. There's about 20 effects in each of these.
- 37:44So I'm working on volume three.
- 37:46I'm probably at about 16 effects at the moment. And so that will,
- 37:50in the next year or so, that will turn into volume three.
- 37:54And there's some really, really fun stuff in there. And so, yeah, I'm working on that.
- 38:00Going back to my buffet comment, recently there was a comedy magic special that
- 38:05was doing the rounds and the guy had a routine with the old bending glass or
- 38:10bending mirror effect, which I'm sure you're familiar with.
- 38:14It's take a piece of glass or a mirror, you put it into a wooden frame,
- 38:17you fold it in half. It's a really great trick that you almost never see now.
- 38:22This guy had a super fun presentation for that effect.
- 38:26And i saw within the next few weeks after that i saw people online saying has
- 38:33anyone got a bending glass.
- 38:36Is anyone selling so suddenly you know magicians are saying,
- 38:41oh i'm going to treat that as a buffet i'm just going to help myself to that
- 38:45presentation because that will go right in my show and that and that's really
- 38:48sad because that that's not really the way to approach it at all now having said that i do,
- 38:55have a version of the bending glass bending mirror effect it's a close-up version,
- 39:03and i think you'll love it when you see it it's a really really neat idea and
- 39:09i've only shared it with a couple of people and i think that will at some point
- 39:13come to fruition but it's it's going to be fun.
- 39:18Amazing. Here we are. Peek behind the curtain. Well, I appreciate that.
- 39:23It's indeed looking forward to that. When the book does come out,
- 39:26promise you we'll come back and have a chat with us so we can hear all about
- 39:29it. Yeah? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- 39:31Now, the advice you said on watching shows. We watched the show not long ago.
- 39:36It was a Penn and Teller show.
- 39:38I saw it in Vegas. I saw it here.
- 39:41In their show, they did this routine.
- 39:43It was killer. It was a whole bunch of things with like 52 balloons and all these choices.
- 39:48Absolutely fooling. I had no idea how it was done.
- 39:52And then come to find out, someone goes, what'd you think? Well,
- 39:56tell her himself, what did you think of the balloon act? I'm like,
- 39:59fooled the crap out of me. He goes, that's Sean Taylor's. And I just went,
- 40:02of course it freaking is. Of course it is.
- 40:07That in itself is so cool. I have no idea how a routine you create ends up in
- 40:14the hands of world-famous Penn & Teller act.
- 40:19Would you mind sharing that story with our audience and how that all happened?
- 40:22Sure. Yeah. So first off, I'll say it's not really mine.
- 40:26The derivation of it is a David Burglass effect from back in the 1960s.
- 40:32He did it remarkably on live TV as a one-man thing when you read the,
- 40:38the entry in the birdglass book and and also in the little there's there was
- 40:43a little sort of manuscript that he put together
- 40:46that had it in and when you read it it's just completely impossible you would
- 40:49never risk doing it the chances of you of you getting it,
- 40:54to work will be so slim what what what happens is he has a system for knowing
- 41:00which cards the spectators need to choose and he was literally culling and classic
- 41:06forcing three cards on live tv it's completely nuts doesn't make sense at all so,
- 41:13my friend richard pinner who's a really amazing corporate magician that lives
- 41:18in the uk and we have shared ideas for many years i do stuff of his he does
- 41:23stuff of mine we're great mates and we have been for a long time,
- 41:26he had some input on that effect, and I saw him do a version of it many years ago.
- 41:33I took some of his ideas, added some of my own, turned it into a two-person
- 41:37effect, which I did in a show called Out of Your Mind about 20 years ago.
- 41:42Fast forward, Penn and Teller were in Australia. They spoke to a couple of guys
- 41:45and said, there must be someone in Australia that invents tricks.
- 41:48And a couple of people said, yeah, you need to talk to this guy.
- 41:51And so I had a call from Teller.
- 41:53And I had two or three things that I wanted to share with him.
- 41:57But my strongest suggestion was that they took a look at the balloon effect.
- 42:02And so that's how it came about.
- 42:04I did some sessions with them over Zoom, gave them my ideas and methodology and recommendations.
- 42:12They did speak to Berglas, who was still around at that time,
- 42:15and he gave them some suggestions, but eventually they came back to use the
- 42:18method that I'd suggested.
- 42:20And then, yeah, great pleasure for me. I got to sit in the opera house and watch
- 42:24them do it live, which was amazing.
- 42:27Cool. And did it pay for the extension on your house?
- 42:33I got some money for the work that I did, let's just say.
- 42:38Yeah, yeah. I paid for some of the books. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
- 42:47Was there any part of you that was like, oh, maybe I should take this to their
- 42:51show and fool them on Fool Us or anything like that?
- 42:55I had thought about that, yes. Because I'd been asked a couple of times if I'd
- 43:00got stuff that I would do on Fool Us if I had the chance.
- 43:04And I did think about it, but I liked the fact that it went straight into the show.
- 43:09It actually was supposed to be just a segment on Fool Us, but they ended up
- 43:13liking it so much because it packs so small and plays so big that it's gone
- 43:18into the 50th anniversary touring show, which is amazing. Wow.
- 43:23Yeah, I've had the pleasure of seeing it twice now, once in Vegas and once here
- 43:27in Melbourne at the Hamer Hall. So, yeah.
- 43:32So, obviously, this is the example of you in your consulting slash show development abilities.
- 43:38I'm just curious if there's any sort of small change that folks can make that
- 43:42would have a big improvement for their shows.
- 43:46That's a great question. Maybe a common issue that requires some fixing.
- 43:53I think the transitions between effects and the rhythm of the effects is really important.
- 44:00And sometimes to take a step back and have a look at how you get from one effect
- 44:06to the next and the journey of the props, I think is really important.
- 44:10Alan Shaxton was a favorite magician of mine and Alan always looked so immaculate
- 44:15and everything he did looked very smooth and so
- 44:19he would go into his pocket and bring something out he would reach into the
- 44:22case and take something straight out it would go straight back in it all,
- 44:26it all looked super super smooth so often I see magicians they'll they'll end
- 44:31up with a table full of clutter and they're in their bag sort of rummaging around
- 44:36trying to find things to me that that that's,
- 44:39that whole setting,
- 44:42is a mess you need to be really neat and organized so that that stuff doesn't
- 44:47get noticed so i think the journey of the props and the rhythm the the interchanges
- 44:52between the effects are probably the thing to focus on.
- 44:57That's great advice and what about scripting do you find i personally find that
- 45:01so many magicians avoid scripting and then when they do script it's very mechanical
- 45:06i was performing recently with a great magician who is a very very busy guy
- 45:10but just like you said at the start of the show he's,
- 45:12just reiterating the purchased product that script and,
- 45:18he's delivering it great like what he's saying is perfectly delivered like that
- 45:22like that boy is rehearsed but what he's,
- 45:25spousing is not anything that's genuine or his own and he's he's reacting to
- 45:32jokes that didn't land and there's things of that nature and i'm just,
- 45:36do you do you have a theory as to like why magicians are so avoidant in scripting.
- 45:41So I do think there's a fine line, by the way, and if you brought up a really
- 45:44good point, that scripting is absolutely critical, particularly at the beginning
- 45:49of an effect. You need to establish the premise of the effect and hook the audience in.
- 45:55And nowadays, because people's concentration span is so different these days
- 45:59to what it would have been years ago, you have to keep doing that during the
- 46:03show. So as you move to each new effect, you have to set the premise.
- 46:07And the best way to do that is have a couple of sentences is a script but once
- 46:12you've learned that you need to say in a really nice natural and fluid way so
- 46:18it doesn't sound like you're just reciting it.
- 46:21The the the extreme is to get to the point where you're you're literally just
- 46:26delivering the lines and unfortunately
- 46:28at that stage you're doing magic at people rather than to them,
- 46:33And yeah, if you take, here's a really good example, Matt King.
- 46:37Matt King has essentially done, the core of Matt King's show has essentially
- 46:41been the same for years and years and years, but it feels fresh every night.
- 46:48It feels fresh. It doesn't sound like he's just saying the lines.
- 46:52It feels like you might be seeing things for the first time.
- 46:56It doesn't feel scripted at all, even though he's done it tens of thousands of times.
- 47:03And that's ultimately where you need to get to. And so I think you also need
- 47:07to be able to react to what happens with the audience. And Nick,
- 47:12I've already said it, you're very good at this.
- 47:16So if somebody does say something daft, you're able to jump on that and use
- 47:21it and work with it and jazz with it.
- 47:23And that's such a critical thing.
- 47:26I'm coming back to you and josh i i apologize i haven't had the pleasure of seeing
- 47:30your show as much as i have with nick i'm absolutely certain the fact that you're
- 47:35completely smashing it night after night the bits i've seen that you do are
- 47:39fantastic and your work with the with the cubes and um you know some of that
- 47:43uh some of that other stuff you're doing it just
- 47:46it's breathtaking and so yeah you guys are.
- 47:48You guys are definitely top 10 for me and this is great that we can celebrate
- 47:53the talent that exists in this country because we do have some exceptional magicians
- 47:57and you know it's we're very lucky,
- 48:00very i'm i'm just i'm just so glad that i get to like yes it's great i get to
- 48:05work my routines and perform every week but i get to watch the amazing nigel,
- 48:09who we know as kerry perform,
- 48:11and that is like something special and what has helped like change how i perform so much.
- 48:19Yeah, and Kerry is another great example of a guy that knows his character and
- 48:25knows the boundaries that he has and knows where he can go with the audience and how he can push it,
- 48:31to, you know, absolutely to the limit with the audience.
- 48:34And yeah, brilliant, brilliant example, again, of a guy who's done his stuff
- 48:38a thousand times and, and, and really has it to the point where he can then
- 48:43go off script and, and, and do things that are, you know, a little,
- 48:47a little quirky and a little unusual.
- 48:49A little? Yeah. Brilliant. Okay. Very quirky and very unusual.
- 48:54Yeah. Kind of crazy as he, as he would word it.
- 48:58There's always a sense of danger right with with his you know.
- 49:03You're always kind of wondering how far you'll go and that's that's brilliant
- 49:07that's a great place to be but again not something that would suit me or or
- 49:12potentially most of us it's you know it's unique unique to his character,
- 49:18that's true and talking about doing shows and and events and things like that
- 49:22when someone is as seasoned as you,
- 49:24you have to collect some stories from gigs.
- 49:28And there is a little segment we like to do called Gig Stories.
- 49:31And I think this is a great time to roll into that.
- 49:35So Gig Stories is a section of the show where we talk about little moments of
- 49:38magic either while performing or our day-to-day lives. And I'm sure that there
- 49:41is more stories than we can count.
- 49:43Like the very fact you've published 200 tricks. I don't think I've seen 200 tricks, dude.
- 49:48So I'm sure you've got just as many stories. Is there a particular story that
- 49:54comes to mind about a gig?
- 49:59There are probably two that I jump to straight away. One that I often tell in
- 50:03my lecture, my pineapple trick is something that people would know a lot about.
- 50:06It's called Pineapple Surprise. It's a trick with a can of pineapple.
- 50:10I was working at a wedding, and I was looking for a volunteer to help with that.
- 50:15And this very nice lady was sitting very close to the side of the stage,
- 50:20put up her hand and came to help. And it was obvious to me once she stood up
- 50:26and started walking that she'd obviously had too much to drink.
- 50:31By the time she got to the stage, she was kind of leaning on me and she was
- 50:36giggling and it was very clear that she was three sheets to the wind, as they say.
- 50:43And so we got to the point where I had to open the can at the end of the effect
- 50:47and the can opener I use holds still and the can turns.
- 50:53So the spectator just needs to hold their hand flat and the can sits on it.
- 50:57But she gripped the can she had a sort of vice like grip on the can and i said
- 51:02no just put it flat on your hand she couldn't let go of it she just she was
- 51:05just holding it so eventually i had to sort of walk around the can opening the thing,
- 51:10while she was holding it then i flipped the lid up on the can,
- 51:15and i was explaining the the end of the effect and and what happens is i put
- 51:20my finger into the can and I take the piece of pineapple out and that's the
- 51:25finale to the effect, the ring of pineapple.
- 51:28Just as I went to put my finger into the can, she snatched the can away and
- 51:33it cut my finger right to the bone.
- 51:36The way across the back just literally right and the scar is still very very
- 51:42obvious it cut right to the bone and of course because it was my finger it started to bleed like mad,
- 51:48and also because it was pineapple juice it stung like hell.
- 51:55So i'm standing there in screaming agony with this with this big cut and i,
- 52:02i i'm a bit old-fashioned i always have a handkerchief in my pocket so i took
- 52:05out cotton handkerchief wrapped it around my finger to get to the end
- 52:10but despite that I still had about 15 minutes of the show to do so I got right
- 52:15through to the end and by the time I'd finished I was literally covered in blood
- 52:20it was on my suit it was on my shoes it was on the floor it was everywhere,
- 52:25so I hastily packed up went to the hospital got it stitched up and when I got
- 52:31home my wife just had a huge shock as the door opened because she uh she thought i'd been shot.
- 52:39So so covered in blood anyway here we are one quick one as well i was i was
- 52:44doing a gig one night in uh in a pub in north sydney i was i only remember remembered
- 52:49this last week because i was in the same pub,
- 52:51and i was in a room on the top floor performing for this corporate event and
- 52:57i I took a bit of a break, came out,
- 52:59having a drink at the bar that was between the two rooms, and there was a guy
- 53:03standing next to me, and he said...
- 53:05Sounds like they're having a lot of fun in that, in that party.
- 53:08Uh, it's a bit better than ours.
- 53:10And I said, well, what do you mean? He said, oh, this, this party is so dull.
- 53:14It's dreadful. And I said, well, this one's brilliant. They've got a magician.
- 53:18And he said, really? Is he any good? I said, fantastic. It's absolutely smashing.
- 53:24And he said, really, we should have done something like that.
- 53:28And we talked for a couple of minutes and I said, actually, I should tell you it's me.
- 53:31And he's like what yeah it's me it's me and he said you're the magician i said
- 53:36yeah he said what does it cost to get a guy and i think i was charging about
- 53:39grand at the time and i said yeah thousand dollars and he went thousand dollars,
- 53:44just wait here he went in came out and said can you do ours as well.
- 53:52So i finished up doing the gig that i was doing and then went straight next
- 53:55door and did the same thing again oh that's hilarious that's the fastest repeat gig i've ever had,
- 54:03wow i've never heard of like you know scouting the venue you're in to see there's
- 54:08other parties to get work from essentially what a win,
- 54:13that's awesome i've i've been booked in in like for two gigs right next to each
- 54:19other at crown casino so i was doing show for,
- 54:22snooze like the the bedding company yeah then the moment i finished that i just
- 54:26went next door and i did a row for like some wedding,
- 54:30convention something or other like some big dollar thing that we're doing there
- 54:33but yeah but i've never like walked out and got booked for another one that's insane,
- 54:39and paid immediately as well yeah.
- 54:43What joy yeah josh gig story,
- 54:48Let me think. I've been really enjoying doing some casino gigs lately.
- 54:52My buddy Chris, shout out to Chris Stay, runs Stay Entertained,
- 54:56and he does these party casino nights.
- 54:59And recently, we've been doing a few where I'm sort of like a James Bond sleight
- 55:03of hand guy that moves in. And as someone in my YouTube comments wrote,
- 55:07I should be James Bald, which is very funny.
- 55:10And so it's been really fun doing gambling magic that makes sense because you're
- 55:15in a gambling situation.
- 55:17And then My gig story is that I was doing that event last week, and as I sat down to
- 55:24give the dealer a break, and I used the table that everyone's standing around
- 55:28to do sort of some table card work, I had my cards on me, but the dealer was
- 55:33like, oh, can you do something with these cards?
- 55:34And gave me like the cards they'd just been playing with and left me and I was like oh,
- 55:41I can and something in my head switched and because in my head I was going to
- 55:44do like stacked work or whatever I'd set up or had duplicates or whatever,
- 55:49but like he had just given me the deck they'd just been playing with and,
- 55:54so I went into some routines and you know cutting to four aces and stuff and
- 55:57I noticed the difference in reaction because the audience had just been using
- 56:02that deck so they know like even more so that it's like legit and organic and.
- 56:09How funny that that was the one place that a deck of cards is organic because
- 56:13it was already there as opposed to me out a deck and yeah it was just a small
- 56:17little note that you know people notice that stuff and,
- 56:21and so it made it fun so so from then for the rest of the night i made it a
- 56:25point that anytime i would do a little set at one of the dealer's tables when
- 56:30they'd take a break and i'd switch out, I would just use the deck they would,
- 56:33they were just using and it made a big difference.
- 56:35So that was my little gig story of something I learned. What about you, Nick?
- 56:40What about you? So I've been working on a routine, which I'm just affectionately calling wishes.
- 56:46And boring. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
- 56:50That was just for comedy. Okay, go on. So it was just about trying to do like
- 56:54a Q&A style effect where people make wishes. And, you know, the methods I had
- 56:59required a few people to do some cool things. And eventually I just went, you know what?
- 57:03After a big chat with Morten Christensen, I came up with a method that scales it right back.
- 57:08And now it's done to the effect of like people write and accumulate questions
- 57:12i give people i'll let people write down a wish i accumulate them but then i
- 57:16put them on a board like a giant board people the effect is people can i nominate
- 57:20i give them envelopes they go up there to the board,
- 57:23choose a wish either for themselves or for someone else it goes in the envelope
- 57:27they take a seat and then when i do the effect i go if you have an envelope
- 57:30hold it up i take the envelopes back i can tell who made the wish and what the
- 57:35wish was at the end of it right it's a really cool bit,
- 57:37but i had someone come to theater of magic twice in a row just to tell me that they,
- 57:43one of the like so there's many wishes on there i've got like 50 plus wishes
- 57:46and it's just growing and growing and growing i have more than i can actually
- 57:49put on the wall at this point,
- 57:51and so they came back twice in a row just to tell me that they made a wish and
- 57:57it came true because the premise of my routine which adam axford actually helped me write.
- 58:02The entire premise originally was just that if two or more people wish for something
- 58:06that the universe will deliver like that's that's the long and short of it right,
- 58:09and there's a lot of things to,
- 58:11to back that up with theories and you know even biblical notions if you read
- 58:15matthew 18 18 and read onward like that's sort of what inspired me to do it
- 58:19originally but the cool thing is that like.
- 58:22Someone made the wish and then you go find the same wish so like somebody's
- 58:26already made it you just need to make it for yourself which means like you're
- 58:29already there this guy came back to my show last week and he goes so i wish
- 58:33for a big bigger house. And I'm like, great.
- 58:35And he goes, four days ago, I bought a bigger house. And I was like,
- 58:39awesome and so i just went like this is supposed to be a trick but it was just
- 58:46this little moment of like providence where i went like oh oh it's real.
- 58:51And so i'm just wondering like how many stories will come out of this people
- 58:56who are like oh i wish i had a dog you know there's little wishes like that
- 58:59i wish i had a dog i wish i lost weight i wish i wish i stress less you know like
- 59:03like every time it's like oh i wish i stress less i go oh i think i know what
- 59:06you wish is i go into my bag and i i throw him a stress ball and i go that's
- 59:09for you you're gonna be fine and then i move on to the next thing but it was just,
- 59:13i just thought it man it would be cool if it actually happened and sure enough
- 59:16it did actually happen so yeah,
- 59:20what do you say we wrap up yeah you're helping the manner you're actually helping
- 59:23them manifest their goals in a way yeah dreams their dreams it's kind of adorable wow yeah,
- 59:29so now what do you say we wrap this up with some rapid fire questions and we
- 59:33we call it a night what do you guys think cool rapid fire i like it all right you ready rapid fire,
- 59:40sean taylor favorite magician of all time you only have one,
- 59:47Damn right. Come back to that.
- 59:51All right, give us five. Go.
- 59:57I'm going to say David Burglass. Nice. Yeah, yeah. I love his book too.
- 1:00:03Absolutely love it. Who's the most underrated magician working today?
- 1:00:09Wow. Gosh, underrated. You.
- 1:00:20I'll take it what's a trick that every magician should perform at least once,
- 1:00:26thumb tip oh it's a good one what's a trick what's a trick that every magician
- 1:00:32should retire don't say thumb tip.
- 1:00:37Double cross the vanishing bandana well anything that everybody else is doing Good, good call.
- 1:00:44So double cross. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
- 1:00:47Books or DVDs that every serious magician should study.
- 1:00:52I think you need to study books outside of magic. I've got a book sitting here
- 1:00:57on my table, which is called Bulletproof Problem Solving.
- 1:01:00Brilliant book. So find books outside of magic, you know, Dale Carnegie,
- 1:01:06you know, find those books about developing yourself as a person,
- 1:01:10as well as the magic books.
- 1:01:12Okay. Two more. If you could spend an afternoon or sessioning with any magician,
- 1:01:18living, dead, your call, who would it be?
- 1:01:23Wow a bunch of us spent a great afternoon with danny da ortiz in melbourne a
- 1:01:29few years back that was a huge thrill for me,
- 1:01:32i enjoyed every minute of that i i'd be happy to do that all over again but
- 1:01:37probably on balance my choice would be eugene burger love the man to bits that's a good one yeah,
- 1:01:45and last one what are you still trying to improve in your own magic and in your own performance.
- 1:01:56Still trying to improve everything i don't think you ever stop learning and
- 1:02:00i don't think you ever really crack everything i think i i'm still trying to improve everything,
- 1:02:08great questions and look we're just gonna have to have him back because with
- 1:02:12the guy that comes over 200 effects there's like we didn't even scratch the
- 1:02:16surface i mean we were talking off air about as a business
- 1:02:19you know share multiple income streams as a magician all these things that we're
- 1:02:23just gonna have to make this as part two when your next book comes out.
- 1:02:27Now, before we wrap up, Sean, how can people get in touch with you if they do
- 1:02:32want your consulting or their follow-up questions?
- 1:02:36So they can email me, sean at seantaylor.com.au is my email address.
- 1:02:42So they can email me there if they want to find out more about my material.
- 1:02:47My books, the two mentalism books are now, Now, I've written about half a dozen
- 1:02:51books altogether, but the two mentalism books are now available on Amazon,
- 1:02:56which makes it really super easy. It means I don't have to post them all around
- 1:03:00the world. You can order them from Amazon.
- 1:03:02Oh, how good is that? Okay, that's perfect. And look, we're going to leave.
- 1:03:06We're going to finish our episode in the way that we always do,
- 1:03:09which is by giving our guest the final word.
- 1:03:17Hey thanks so much for listening and watching everybody great to meet all of
- 1:03:22you and get in touch if you need any help,
- 1:03:26thanks for listening it's time for us to disappear now disappear now but we'll
- 1:03:32see you again on the next episode of the magic guys.