Trying New Material. Post-gig Debrief. Live Q and A

That'll do, won't it? Tell me if it's working. Oh, there's a slight delay, which is always very upsetting. Welcome to meal, meal, meal, Radjic. This isn't looking good, is it? This isn't looking good. I'm gonna press a button now that does this. That's better. I've reset, reset. Now, talking about that, it doesn't work great for me. What, me, this, or the, let me see that in a minute. Hey, Manish, hey, everyone. Right, so, welcome to Real Magic Review. That's better, nearly. Go and have a look at Card Magic Course, like and subscribe, do all that stuff. That'd be good, wouldn't it? Card Magic Course is mine, Magic Course is brilliant. Have a look at it, cardmagiccourse.com. Right, I have had some problems with this. I'm on OBS and I'm thinking of going over to Ecamm, not that that'll mean much to any of you, but I was on Zoom the other day through this and it was doing that thing. If it does that again, it's just so, did it once on here. And it didn't do it again and it's been doing it again. So, if it does that again, please tell me, because I can't see whether that happens here and we might have to bail if it's doing it too much and I'm just gonna get Ecamm and have to be a big boy and pay for it, so. Right, so, I did this gig last week and I know people must be like, well, Steve, that's what you do for a job, big deal. But it was a big deal because it was the first live one in a while and importantly, it was the first one and I tried some new stuff in it in a very long time. I did a little bit between lockdowns and the thing I tried at the new gig then was I did one thing that was in a garden pipe, it was super easy, but this was like a proper corporate bigger. And weirdly enough, how anxious I was feeling. And I, what I found at the moment, really weirdly, but not, is that when I'm going out, like I'm going out tonight because it's my birthday in a few days, yay. I still get excited, I'm 40, 48. I'm not doing anything. It's a guilt-free day off, that's what it is. I mean, maybe a little drink in the daytime, imagine that, a little pint. So, yeah, so I get, but what I'm going out tonight and I feel a little bit anxious, really weirdly. It's not like I'm thinking, oh, I'm anxious about it. It's not, it's really an implicit thing. And it's just this underlying, and it's kind of obviously leftover from kind of staying in for a year or whatever, but I felt like that in the gig. And all day, I was like, I couldn't really settle. And I'd said I was gonna try a few new things. The main things were Cubesmith, which I'd done before for people, but not in a sort of professional getting around the tables, using Peaksmith too, and also the Dicesmith, which I was really nervous about doing. And I hadn't rehearsed them because I didn't really know how they were gonna feel. I'd kind of talked through, I'd kind of practiced the hell out of them, but not in a kind of way I just couldn't work out how it was gonna feel. And I couldn't even work out where I was gonna put the Peaksmith before. And if you're not sure what that is, have a look. It's basically a device that allows you to do these tricks and have a look at the reviews I've done of them. But I didn't, I kind of knew where I was gonna put it, but then when I got there, it didn't feel right in that place. And, oh yeah, I'll get to that in a minute, Gary. And with the Peaksmith, it's funny, when I did the dice, I was just like, I thought it was gonna feel right in my hand, but it didn't. So I popped it in the belt of my trousers, and it was great. And I wouldn't have come out without it, I don't think, in practice. So the big thing for me is, is not to, I don't want this to come out wrong, but not to over-rehearse. So if it's gonna be different, have an open mind. So you rehearse it and go, right, I'm gonna do it that way, but be flexible to change. And actually, there was another thing where I was doing the Cubes and I realized that the Peaksmith could be in the bags with the Cubes, and when I took the Cubes out, I could leave the Peaksmith there on the table. So it was really, really good. And again, that came in situation, that wasn't what I was gonna plan to do. Other things that I found were the practice that I'd done with the Cube, with the algorithms, and reading the algorithms, was a lot easier than I thought it was gonna be, because I practiced it so much. And this is what I feel happens quite a lot. And I've done it for a practice or rehearsed lines. I never feel like I've nailed them in practice. I always feel like I've got to think about them. But in the reality, when I get to the gig, they just flow out. It's like, it's that weird thing, it just becomes unconscious. And I found that weirdly, that I was struggling at home with the algorithms and following them quickly. And in real life, it was just happening. I was just kind of, it was like muscle memory. So again, a lot of people, especially with lines and scripting, have said to me, I still don't feel like I've got it, and within presentations and things like that. And a lot of the time, it never quite feels like it's there until you perform it. And sometimes then it won't feel right. And I will say that when I did Dice Smith, Cube Smith, it was icky as hell. I mean, I had not much to say. The words that I was gonna say came out too quickly. I had nothing else to say. I was kind of multitasking, of course, because I was trying to talk to people while thinking quite a lot, which I'm not very good at. And they weren't good performances. If you'd have watched them, they were kind of relaxed. They weren't, but they looked relaxed, because I think I'm quite good at looking like, I'm kind of confident when I'm not. But they weren't really well scripted. They don't have much meaning to them. And interestingly, and I think this is important, when you've got a really good magic trick that kind of speaks for itself, and this isn't the goal, but you've got a really firm foundation there. So even if you don't perform it that well at the first number of times, you've got a trick that, and when I was doing the Dice, you know, and if you don't know the effect, Dice Smith is really, you know, there's four colored dice there, roll them, roll them out in front of you. I've got my back to them completely. They roll the dice on the table, and I tell them four different colors, what colors rolled what number. And it was a completely flawed trick. It didn't really go anywhere. I just did that like three times. The last one changed a bit because I said, right, pick one up of the colors, roll it, and then roll it on the table. And I told them what color they picked up and rolled, which is kind of adds a little bit of difference at the end. But the trick was so good that they were so confused, but in a good way, not confused as in what you're doing, very simple, that they were loving it. And it was just, it just got more and more impossible. And it was, it was a good lesson in kind of like no real presentation, but just a little bit of confidence, nice and relaxed. Again, not really, but, and just talk them through it. And then, you know, I left that, I want to go and all that kind of stuff. And again, with the Cube, sometimes I lost, didn't have things to say, and it was a bit of dead time, but I just said, I'm just really concentrating here. And the end was so strong. And both tricks, because I practiced them a lot, I'd forgotten how strong they were. And I think this happens with a lot of magic, that we get a trick, we get it back, we practice it. It becomes real for us. We become familiar with it. Familiarity breeds contempt. And we kind of forget actually how it looked the first time we ever saw it. And you see the, in the eyes of people, it's a really refreshing thing. You kind of go, oh yeah, this is really good, isn't it? I kind of forgot how good this is. So, so it was really, I felt really good. But I will say the first three or four tables, I was all over the place. I mean, really all over the place, because I'd had it in my head. I'd worked for this company before, and I had it in my head that it was going to be quite relaxed. A lot of people, always a lot of people, but just really, but it was in a marquee outside and the tables were really spread out. And I knew I wasn't going to get around everybody. So I kind of said to the client, I'm just not going to get around everybody. There's just no way it's going to happen unless I do like one minute each table. They were cool. So it took the heat off me a little bit and I just relaxed and kind of got on with it. So, and what I did, I did the new thing and I said to them, look, I'm going to do something new. So can you, can I try something out? And then I'll finish off with my stuff that I know I'm doing. They were all like, yeah, great. So felt really good afterwards. And it was a really nice thing to do. I still don't know whether I don't want to be driving around the country or whatever doing gigs. I'd rather do lectures and conventions and things like that these days from getting old, but it was lovely. And it was good to work in that new stuff, which I'm going to put some of that in my show as well. So it felt good to kind of make it work. Just see if I've got anything else I was going to say. Buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh. Nope. No. Oh. Oh yeah, that's, well, yeah. So just going back to what I was saying before, I wanted to mention that just for everybody else. And the, I think it was Tom Stone, I reviewed that Tom Stone and Tommy Wonder book. And he talks about, I think it's Ira Glass he quotes, I think, don't quote me on that. Saying that, you know, whenever you do anything, the first few times you do it, or first, it's not going to be as good. It's not going to be very good compared to what it will be. And I think we've got to accept that. We've got to accept that what we do isn't going to be up to par. We might imagine, you know, peers or other magicians seeing us and going, God, I'm glad they don't see this. We got to understand that's always the case with new stuff. I really do believe that. So, you know, don't worry if you do stuff that you're not totally nailing it first time. So I'm going to go to questions. Tom, do a few card tricks, family gathering, failed at each one. I do it all the time. Pretty much everything I try. When I get it to review, I try it with the kids first couple of times, I just don't get it. I'm not saying it happens all the time, but especially if I'm trying something that's really hard, you know, so I would say, and I do this, I'm not saying it as if, you know, you're at a different level or whatever, but I'd say if stuff's not working for you, come down a level, do a lot of self-working stuff, and then build it back up when you've got that confidence with it. So it's unfortunate, it's part of the process of what we do, failure, and actually, it's really good to get used to it because then we get more confident when we realize it's not the end of the world, and that's when we start succeeding. It's a kind of, for me, it's that process. Does anything work anymore? No, no. Michael, hey, dude. Martin, Circus Kids Workshop. Hi, everyone, I'm quite interested to hear your post-gig debrief, cool. And it was a success, thank you. Do ask questions about any of that. I'm really good, Matthew, thank you very much. Yeah, I am really good. My son had to isolate this morning because of, I haven't, because a classmate went off, so he's in for 10 days, he's going. He's meant to go camping and everything, so it was a bit of a disappointing day. CVF deck, yet, if so, your thoughts. First time I've been disappointed with a Vanishing Ink release. Michael Peterson, Patterson. I've just reviewed it. Review is going up on about nine, I think, but I'll give you, my thought is that it does, it did what it did well, and it did one thing well. That's my, I mean, I did it, I performed it to someone. I performed it really badly, and they were like, wow, and I did it a couple of times, not on camera after that, and they were like, wow. So I think it's a decent trick. I'd stay with it. If it's, if you're not getting the responses, it might be a timing thing. I didn't get a great response when I practiced it, and then some one of the times I did, so I'm not sure, but yeah, I think it's fine. But have a look at the full review. It's only a quick one, going out at nine. Thank you for telling me this is all good. Dan Mission, Gary, I would notice you put up a video after you returned from your gig and then removed it. Why? Because I was drunk, and that wasn't because of that, but I was a little bit. No, it was because it lost signal. So I was doing a live one, I was gonna do a live debrief, and the hotel where I was at, weirdly enough, earlier on, it had signal, and then it just went out of signal live, so I just got rid of it. How do you do Cubesmith and Dicemith, one after the other? I'd be up to two and love them, but I don't know how to switch up. No, so I, you, I didn't do one after the other. One at one table, and then I did one at another table. I think you can have, I don't know, is the answer to that. But the Facebook pages are great. They'll be able to let you know. But I was just swapping, going off, resetting and coming back between tables. That's from Jordy. And thanks, Dan. I'm really good, and I hope you are well. I'm glad you are too, mate. Fiddlin' Johnny, fellow reviewer, lovely channel. I've only done virtual shows and have yet to do proper professional in-person gig. I feel really rusty and cannot wait to perform live again. Lots of new material I wanna try out. Yeah, and I am rusty, and I think that's it. Just embrace the rustiness. They don't know. I was doing tricks that had no routining, and the feedback was great. And a lot of them had seen me perform magic before. Weirdly enough, I thought it was all new clients. But because it was the same event organizer, loads of people, oh yeah, we saw you last year. And I was doing stuff that I was really comfortable with, and they didn't know, which is kind of depressing, but good, I think. And how's my friends here? Hey, Fiddlin' Johnny, it was really nice, and thank you. And good luck with it. Let us know how you get on with that. Maybe do something on your channel about it. It'd be great. Hey, Dan, how you doing? Our confidence can be knocked when we haven't done something for so long. It's nerve-wracking getting back to performance people. Yeah, it's nerve-wracking getting out for a drink. It's everything, but I don't know why. I just get a bit nervy. It's really weird. So yeah, we're all kind of relearning again. It's something, I think, to be really honest about, and to talk about, and to kind of, you know, I think it's really, really important. I don't mean constantly complain about it. I mean, just saying, you know, talk about how weird it is, and it is. And I don't know what I want to be doing. That's the other thing. I don't know whether I want to be doing, I definitely want to do more of this. Do I want to be doing gigs? You know, my show, I want to do, I don't know, no. Did you do just a cup? No, I couldn't because I realized that just with COVID, it was so close to, you know, I just felt uncomfortable because you kind of have to do the bit on their hand. So I didn't do it. James, I had a gig last night. I could not get my final double lift on ambitious card for the life of me. We laughed it off and told them that the card wasn't as ambitious as we thought. Yeah, there you go. It happens. Great. You know, I'm nosing stuff up all the time. People always say, I've got a big bit in my show about this. The most, the question magicians always get is, you know, what happens if it goes wrong? And you know, nothing. You know, it's the stuff that's gone wrong that I've got such a lovely story from, you know, that I shared. I shared this thing on Facebook, and I had my daughter in hysterics sharing a video of a clip that went wrong. I must show you a magic trick. It was great. I'm so glad it did. It was horrible. I mean, this is in front of hundreds of people, all the event organizers of Sheffield. You know, they kind of, I've hosted this event for years, and about year five, I did this trick. And it's not only, it doesn't really go wrong. It's just awful. I mean, awful. You know, I'm still alive. It's all good. And it does happen indeed. Indeed. Did you try a lot of new stuff? No, they're the two main new things. I was doing some card stuff that I've been sort of playing with, but, oh, yeah, I was doing the, I reviewed the Glenn Morphew Rub-A-Dub Deluxe with a card right out, and that got stunning responses. It's such a beautiful thing. It's so magical. People just can't believe that the card's vanished. So, I'm always doing Rub-A-Dub anyway, but I did the Deluxe with the card at this angle, and it's just really slow and lovely. It completely sorted me out, that. Oh, I didn't do a fiber optics in the end because it was quite noisy, and I stepped right back, and I just wanted to, because I'm kind of comfortable with fiber optics. So, I just thought, you know what? I want to do the cube and the dice, and just really work that in because that's a comfortable one. I can do that one. So, maybe I did do it once, but, no, but I really recommend it. It just works so lovely, and great for social distancing because you don't have to get anybody else involved. I have a great idea I used for double, oh, great, you should share that. Did you try the SB watch? No, I didn't. I was going to use swipe input, and I just didn't do it because I didn't feel that comfortable. I'm not that great at swipe, and it just didn't seem to fit this situation. So, I didn't. I didn't, but I was kind of really enjoying working the other stuff in. So, you can't do everything, can you? You've got to change your pockets and stuff. Yeah, so you can DM each other, I'm sure. Don't know how you do that on here, but there you go. Andre, no, I don't. Andy Woodhouse. Hi, Stephen, everyone. How you doing, Andy? Right, so I want to share something with you. I got these cards. I thought I'd show them to you, and I'll take them out of the box in front of you. I don't know why, because that's what people do in it. They unbox cards. So, this is from Cypher. Now, I'm going to do a few juggling stuff reviews. I've recorded some reviews of juggling equipment because I've had so many questions about it when I've put stuff on social media. So, I've got some beginner's juggling equipment, but it's still good for intermediate and pros that have been sent that I'm going to review. So, look out for those reviews, and do watch them, even if you're not into it, because I think it's a lovely thing. But Cascade Juggling in Edinburgh also have Cypher playing cards, and they've sent me a couple of decks of cards. This is, and you're getting a nice bag. That's nice. I don't know if you always do, but this is decent. And these are the Dan and Dave Thornton cards, and I love Dan and Dave cards, so I thought I'd just show them to you. I haven't got much to say. I know people don't like it when you have, I know people are like, you're opening like that, but I just wedge them open. I don't stand on ceremony, but I'll do it in a nice way. so these are, let's have a look. Ooh, nice little, nice little three and a seven on the tuck there. They do feel lovely. As everything, and Dan and Dave are just, just amazing, aren't they? This is a Cambrick Finstock. This is Dan and Dave Finstock, apparently, which, oh. I'm not a card collector, but there is a lovely in it when you take it, when you open a card up. Yeah, so they've got a bit, they've been near my window, so let's have a look. So there you go. They feel very, very nice. We see that they've got a custom ace of spades, so that's what that looks like. And they're lovely, and they are very thin, really thin. They got a, whoa. And these are, I'll just read the thing to you for those that are interested, because I know that a lot of you are interested in playing cards. Oh, hang on. I haven't learnt it. Ace Fulton Casino Vintage Back, a limited edition run of the original design for the now classic playing card series. Two colour options. This was the original design for the Ace Fulton deck, but was never previously bought to print. Now, after seven years and 11 editions, they are finally available. I don't know what that means. Well, have there been 11 editions, if they haven't been bought? I don't know. You'll know that. The premium letterpress tuck looks and feels amazing, and inside the deck features a custom ace of spades, USPCCCCCCCCCC. So, and they are, they do, all custom decks feel lovely. I've never got one open that doesn't feel nice, but I just thought I'd share that with you. Thank you to, well, Cypher, who are Cascade Juggling in Edinburgh. They basically started their, they sort of separated their magic stuff and their cards from their juggling stuff. So, do check the links below, but do check out Cypher playing cards. The URL is cypherplayingcards, S-I-P-H-E-R playingcards.com, if you're into that, just to thank them. And this is not affiliate stuff. Look, I don't do affiliate links. This is just to say thanks for sending them to me. Right. Let's have a look. Are there any questions? Off. Did the trousers stay out? That was so funny. No, I'll do the story. They did, because I had changed the trousers. That wasn't my suit trousers. That was my shorts. So, they did indeed. I think I've PM you on your Facebook. Cool. That's from Dan Mission. Roll with the mistakes. It's all good. I did a 40th party. This is Dan Ride. With final trick being stabbed and shot, and I stabbed wrong card, produced a shot, and set at 40, things start going wrong. Got the best reaction. Absolutely. People love you for it, man. People like to see our humanity and our flaws. That's why it's really dangerous to go out and be like, I know everything. Go out like me, like a complete buffoon. And then, you can't really go wrong. Costco juggling a fab, and quite often chucking a free deck of cards with orders. There you go. So, and they are, they're really lovely. I've just ordered, I bought, these aren't to review. some LED juggling clubs. They're ridiculously expensive, but I want to use them for my show. That's my excuse. So again, look, watch the juggling stuff when it comes out, because I think it's such a, it's such a, I've said this on the review of the first one. It's such a lovely thing to do with magic, because magic's very much kind of here. And you, to use almost like the same skills, it's kind of the learning, and kind of learning something difficult. It does feel like a similar process, but being up and moving your body, I think really, it's nice, because then when I go back to magic, I feel like I've had a little bit of a workout. It's just, it's totally brilliant for my mental health juggling. It's, I just love it. I've got out of it for years and years, a bit like magic, but even more years, and now I've really rediscovered it. So, right. I think that's it. There you go. Too much rambling, probably, but last, last orders for any questions. Now, mexymex, mexymex there. I've got a little lounge bit on, on the Discord server. The People's Palace of, here we go. The People's Palace of Prestidigitation. Have a look at that. The link will be below at some point. I'll forget to do it, and then mexymex there will remind me. I keep forgetting to put that on. I think I've done it on the other one that's going up tonight as well. I'll try and remedy that in a minute, but have a look at that. You can discuss the channel there. You can ask me questions on the channel, and, and it's a really cool little server. Everybody's very nice, and everybody's very chatty on there, and it's been lovely. So, have a look at that. Right. I'm going now, because you haven't asked any more questions. Have a great one. Thanks so much for being here. I'm going to do a live session now. Just call it PPP, mate. Yeah, I know. I don't know about Sam's Minds. I don't know. I think they are, aren't they? They, they said it was over, and then, it was, and then I saw they released a couple of things, and actually, you know, Sam's Minds had a few, they get a bad drop. They had a few quite nice things, actually, and those Armando Lucero DVDs are stunning. They're amazing. I watched some of the first one the other day. Matt, he, you know, learnt a great deal. So, again, have a look at them. I think they're great. Right. Thanks, Steve. Lovely to be back performing. Nice one, Phil and Johnny. Let us know how you get on. Take care, everyone. See you later. I'm going to awkwardly fiddle around here, and have a great one. Cheers, bye.