Desert Island Tricks Jamie Daws (& stand in host Peter Nardi)
This week we flipped the format and put our host in the hot seat to reveal a set that can carry an entire career: intimate close‑up, parlour storytelling, and full‑blown stage moments that stick. The choices are surprising, practical, and deeply audience‑first, from Richard Sanders’ Identity, retooled to fit holiday crowds, to ProMystic’s MD Mini and Inception, a duo that turns mind reading into a shared experience people can’t stop talking about.
Joined by guest host Peter Nardi, we dig into why some methods never die when they’re framed as real experiences. Pegasus Page To Lovecraft shows how a torn page can become a narrative anchor and a gift. Killer Elite Pro gets its flowers for transforming a classic mentalism principle into a cinematic micro‑thriller. And Toxic Plus (within the iThump ecosystem) proves that app magic can be invisible, fair, and scalable, whether you’re at a dinner table or in a thousand‑seat theatre, the audience does the work on their own phones while you drive the story.
The finale? PK Touches, presented as the closest thing to “real” magic many spectators will ever feel. We talk structure, safety, and why it creates electric rooms where strangers lean in and whisper instead of just cheering. Along the way, we challenge a common fear: chasing only loud “wow” reactions. Magic is an art, and art earns permission to evoke different emotions, curiosity, unease, wonder, even quiet tears. For resources, we spotlight Seance, a bound collection rich with hands‑on séance methods and essays, and a humble non‑magic item, rope, to build a spirit tie and cabinet anywhere, proving that theatre doesn’t need heavy tech to feel impossible.
If you love smart, reliable, and story‑driven magic that puts the spotlight on your spectators, you’ll find ideas here to reshape your set and your thinking.
Jamie’s Desert Island Tricks:
- Identity
- MD Mini
- Inception
- Killer Elite Pro
- Spirit
- Pegasus Page
- TOXIC +
- PK Touches
Banishment. Being worried about eliciting different reactions in an audience
Book. Seance
Item. Rope
Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk