Steve Shows and Discusses His Public Failure. And Why It Was Worth It.

So I get, and it was a bit of a risk, I did this whole intro about failure and then I talked about failing a magic trick and then I played the clip of my daughter laughing at me, watching me on the phone failing at a magic trick. Have I shown you this thing? You want to watch it? Yeah. Funny. Yeah, this is what I played. It's not about, it's basically saying that when we fail at things in our heads we think that that means we'll fail at the next thing and it's actually, if you look at differently, if you fail at something that could lead on to something really good because you could have a, you know, so let me see if I can find it. I'll play it. I've also got the clip of me failing on the trick that she watched. I don't know if I can show you it because it's so embarrassing. So this is, basically, I'll tell you the story of this trick, right, and it's a story that I told the show. There's one thing that's worse than getting a magic trick wrong on stage is not getting it wrong and it being so awful that nobody cares and it's the most humiliating thing you've ever done. So what happened in the trick, and I will show you it one day because it's quite funny. Have I told you this story? I might have told some of you. The trick was with a maze box, right, so a maze box is basically a change bag, a black box. Everybody comes out and I'm hosting this awards ceremony for basically every event organizer in my city. It's the hot ticket of the year, right, the Exposed Awards. Exposed is a magazine that's an events magazine but it's all really young, you know, I mean, yeah, Joe will know it very well, right. So everybody's there and I'm like, I host the thing every year and it's a nightmare gig because everybody's absolutely hammered and people are just talking over you but you just, I don't usually do magic and Phil had said, the organizer, he said, well, we're doing a disco theme, can you do a disco theme magic trick and I was like, Phil, I can't because every time I do it, it doesn't work, nobody really cares and he's like, no, you've got to do it quick. It's a new venue. So what, so it was like two days before I came up, I'm trying to wrap my brain, I came up with this idea, the trick is this. Someone, everybody puts their favorite 80s or disco performer on a billet, they put it in the box at the interval, right, or before the show starts, that's it. So you've got hundreds of pieces of paper. Someone, I introduced myself, someone comes on stage, this is how it's meant to happen. They do like a lucky dip in the box, they pull a billet out, right. I, at the same time, get behind a bit of cloth that's being held up by two audience members and do a quick change, not a proper quick change, but like a fast change. So as he opens it, I say, right, read it out. He says Michael Jackson and this is before the famous video, so it's not quite as bad as you, but you know, it's still not great. But he says Michael Jackson, as he said it, the thing drops and I'm dressed as Michael Jackson. Beat it comes on the PA and I moonwalk on the stage, right. And now I know you're thinking, you're thinking, why were you thinking even, thinking that would work? But I needed something and I talked to Noel Quarter about it and he said it would work. And so I tried to look for this Michael Jackson thing and I just, I looked ridiculous. I had one glove on, right, this thing that didn't allow Michael Jackson's hair and I'd even cut it with scissors because it was like a cheap costume with this sequined jacket on. I was meant to be behind this thing for 20 seconds max. I was there for four and a half minutes it took. I couldn't get the thing on, I was sweating, I couldn't get the t-shirt off. So there's poor blokes standing there, waiting, getting seriously getting bored. The audience is talking amongst themselves. I'm behind the thing going, wait, all right, another 20 seconds. Finally, it drops and I just look like this ridiculous. I'll show you. I'm not going to show you this. Show us the video. I'm not going to show you the video of that. I'm not going to show you the whole thing. It goes on for so long. It's so embarrassing. I'll show you a little bit. Oh, it's just awful. Hang on. It's really bad. I did an edited version. I was going to show it on a night and I couldn't bring myself to do it. I will do one day. The magic of now. Don't tell anybody. This is being recorded, isn't it? God, it's not downloadable. Well, it could be. Sorry. This could be quite uncomfortable viewing. It's got one of those things that kind of should be funny, but it's just a bit bleak. I'm thoroughly excited. I think we all just want to see you as Michael Jackson now. We're not even bothered about the trick. Oh, no. Oh, the trick's non-existent. The trick is utterly terrible. I mean, don't don't don't ever don't try and humor me with this one. There's nothing to be redeemed from this at all. I'm thankful you got more help with this show. I know. I know. Yeah. Now, well, if I did, if I did, I think this would have been quite funny had I not been four and a half minutes under the thing. Right. Yeah, I'll try and find it. Right. Optimize for video clip. Share sound. Yeah, yeah. OK. All right. Can you see that? Can you see it? Yeah. Tell me if you can hear it. Oh, see, that's me. Even now, I can't. That's me going back. You know, I get nervous and I keep going, ladies and gentlemen. So I go back behind there. This is going to be 20 seconds. Steve, close your eyes. Right. So I've edited that. That's like a minute. Twenty more seconds. I've edited that. That's about another three minutes. But look at look at. I said that about fifty five times. I just kept saying it. I didn't have anything on me. I was I was just in a mess behind in my pants behind there. Look how bored he looks. He's been there forever. He's just like, come on. He just wants to go back and have a drink. He's thinking I should have just gone to bed. Oh, God. Oh, my God. OK. You drop off at the same time. If this goes wrong, I'm going to look like such a dog. If it goes right, I'm going to look like such a dog. What is the artist on your paper? Your kid from different strokes. Oh, my God. Why don't you include that on your show? We'll see. All right. Oh, I'm sweating more now. This seems just got very interested. Well, I'm going to show it in the show. I think it's funny, but I just can't do it. But I'll tell you what, that there's. It would be better if he'd have got it wrong and I'd have got the trick wrong. That would have been Michael Jackson. That would have actually been quite funny. Oh, my God. But just I'm shaking up the fear. And like I said in the show, it's so funny because Phil, the organizer knows me because I've hosted this thing for five years, which is worse. And he usually comes up at half time and goes, yeah, well done. And he came up, he came up to me after. He said, yeah, he said, yeah, Steve, how do you think that went? You could just imagine him trying to think, how am I going to deal with this? Walk into the dressing room. And he was at the show the other night, which is great. So so I tell that story and then he sent me a text that half time just saying, how do you feel it went? So this is what makes it worthwhile. I love this. You rather have a nice. Well, it's improved over the years. It's better than that. Usually it's better than that. When I realized I'm not utterly humiliating myself. It's OK. Yeah, this is. Can you see Gracie there? Yeah. So let's see what she says at the end. It's OK. And this is one of the first times that me and Gracie because she got a bit older and we were kind of hanging out as friends. She's just having the chips. So she's watching what you just watched. Because that's what Michael Jackson does. There you go. That's good.