Discourse in Magic

Boo Ya everybody! We made it to Episode 52! To celebrate we invited over four of our closest Toronto magic friends to talk about the Toronto magic community. Before I dive into the content of the episode I just want to thank you at home for being with us for 52 episodes! No matter if you’ve been with us for a little bit or a while, you’re part of the Discourse in Magic community and I want to thank you. Feel free to check out the video! In this episode we started by finding out what our guests have been up to for the past year, and what’s going on in their lives. No surprise, it seems like everyone is in the world of performing magic, or teaching magic, or both. Let’s just say. They’re all “Making It” with magic! Pretty cool! Mark Corriea is honing his own shows by performing non-stop, all over town. Rosemary Ried is performing, as well as teaching/directing at Conjurer Community. Chris Mayhew  just got back from a UK lecture tour, and is working on starting his show fresh, and Ben Train is working with me (Jonah) and a few others on producing TONS of shows in Toronto. Toronto is becoming a POWERHOUSE for magic (if it wasn’t already) For me, the Browser Bash acts as a “New Years” of sorts for Discourse in Magic. So with that we were able to chat with our friends about whats coming in the next magic year for them. We were able to get a peek into peoples heads about some crazy things coming up in the future.We also all took a moment to chat about what we’ve been up to in the last year in terms of magic. It’s important to make sure that you are always progressing and developing. What have you done in terms of magic in the last year? At the end of the day if this episode is going to celebrate anything let it be a celebration of the talent in this city. Toronto is quickly becoming a hotspot for magic. If you were looking for a place to come visit, jam out, and learn something. Now is the time! Once again, big thanks for staying with us for 52 episodes! Here’s to 52 more! Every person that was on the episode has another episode with us. If you liked them, go check out their episode, they are some of the most downloaded episodes we have! Ben Train Chris Mayhew Rosemary Reid Mark Correia PS. let me know if we should print the inspirational shirts that say “Be the magic podcast that you want to see in the world” The post Magic in Toronto with Ben Train, Rosemary Reid, Chris Mayhew, and Mark Correia appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

Episode 51…. we’re almost there! If you’re talking about comedy magic, there are just a few names that automatically come to mind. John Archer is one of them. Not only is his magic baffling, but he’s also absolutely hilarious. He’s known for whipping up his audience, and getting incredible moments out of the magic and the punchlines!  We decided to break it all down and get advice from the expert about all of the parts of the comedy magic that we need help with. There’s advice for beginners, intermediate, and even advice for the experts looking to make their shows better. Here’s a small summary of some of the points for whomever it might help. For beginners: It’s okay to use peoples published material! You’re starting out. You aren’t going to “make it” with that material, but you need to learn your own cadence and rhythm. You need to find the timing in which you deliver punchlines, and not take that from other comedians. It’s totally okay to take solace in the fact that you know the routines are going to work so all you have to do is be fun. Just make sure you’re using that time to also develop and try out other things For Intermediate performers: Listen to your audience. We’re not talking about the advice they give after the show, but how they respond during it. The best way to know if a line or idea works is to use it in an act. That’s the best way to understand exactly how to be best. Being intermediate is one of the safest places to be. You know the strong parts of your show already, and you can play with the other parts until they’re good enough to stick! For Advanced Performers: FIRE… The equation for editing your show. F- Funny, I-Interesting, R-Relevant, E-Entertaining. That is exactly how you edit your show. Make sure that every single moment checks at least one of these boxes. If it isn’t funny, interesting, relevant, or entertaining then you can cut it out of your show. Don’t take it from me, all of this is straight from John Archer! We tried to do our best to steer John away from using the classic response of “performing more”. It’s obvious that performing a ton makes you better, we tried to dive into the real things that you can use to make sure that if you want to be funny on stage you have some of the tools to make that possible, and not just betting on time. If you want to get a taste of John Archer’s magic check out his spot on Penn and Teller. While he was obviously well known before that, it was a perfect moment for him to share his magic with a massive audience, and might just be where we discovered him! Since he’s a real performer, its worth looking though some of his other videos and promo materials to get a feel for what the pro’s are doing. Contact Website Facebook Twitter The post Tools and Tips to Make Your Comedy Magic FIRE with John Archer appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

There is absolutely no question in my mind that you’ve heard of Gazzo. Maybe you’ve seen his Fool Us performance. It’s possible you’ve seen another clip from Youtube. Or equally likely, you could have seen him busking in your city! Gazzo is what we call an “Old School” performer. He does his tricks, and he does them well. In this episode Gazzo basically argues that’s the way it should be, and needs to be if you’re going to spend your life entertaining people. Most importantly he explains how you can do it. One thing you might notice is some controversial thoughts. He thinks magic is easy, he thinks magic is pathetic, and he makes some interesting comparisons with juggling. I would be curious to know what YOU think. There’s something in me that knows it really is difficult to turn a magic trick, as it exists in todays form and make sure it’s an entertaining expirience. Most of the time, it’s just an annoying person showing you a puzzle. If you’re hoping to be an awesome entertainer, then you might want to start in the place which Gazzo recommends: busking on the street. Going into this I thought that busking on the street was a great way to learn because you would know if you were good based on whether or not people paid you afterwards. He explains, the way that you know that you’re good is by paying attention to the ways that people react to you when they react. Notice if people walk away in the first 5 to 10 minutes of your set or if they stay there and more people come. It’s also important to point out the difference between street magic and busking. Street magic is bothering people with magic who are walking on the street. Busking is entertaining audiences who are interested in participating in street entertainment often in exchange for money at the end. It’s of course no surprise that the secret to being great is by performing a lot. But to be incredibly specific as Gazzo was: do three tricks well. You basically need to make sure that you have set, or an act. Then you have to make sure that you’re an excellent performer. If you’re looking good for the name of the book or DVD set that has well tailored material for you that’s already polished and has outs and jokes built into it……… I have terrible news. That’s impossible! You need to make your affect work! By putting in the work If you want more tips though, just listen to the god damn episode. And leave a comment if you’re a human with a face and any opinions you wanna share (about this episode) Contact Website Facebook The post How to Become an Unstoppable Old School Entertainer with Gazzo appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

If you saw them walking down the block you would stop dead in your tracks. A haunted couple just walked out of a catalogue from the 1930s. Mysterion, a fast talking Dracula looking gentleman with a white streak through his hair and a fitted Jacket with a leopard print neck and the matching pants. And Steffi Kay. A dapper young lady dressed in vintage clothing with bright red lips. If I didn’t know better I’d bet a months salary that she is from a Time Machine. This duo walks on stage with a twinkle in their eyes. Sometimes I think it’s because they can read minds, but other times I think it’s because they’re secretly from another universe. We decided to sit to talk to them about exactly that impression that they seem to make on people! Why it’s so important to think about what you’re wearing and when you’re wearing it? Most importantly exactly how you can get noticed and to “get yourself out there”. Mysterion welcomed us into his home to see his incredible (and creepy collection of things). Mysterions advice on getting out there is simple: you need to spend time with the crowds of performers in your city. Hang with the musicians. Hang with the artists. Hang with the theatre kids. It’s the only way to start meeting the right people and making mega connections. His awesome example was the fact that he made the front of a magazine for a music project that he undertook which of course gave him more clout in the world of magic. He also explains his tactics towards looking different and being present in public looking different.It attracts a lot of questions and that of course translate into more business. It’s so much easier to tell someone that you think you bumped into Dracula on the street, then it is to tell them that you met a magician. If what we’re doing is truly impossible why not bet on it as our entire character. Steffi on the other hand discusses her approach with fashion. Her advice for a young magician like us is that more than half of the battle to is just finding clothes that fit and having good posture. With a little bit of help from a friend, googling, or just some good old fashion research you can come up with some great fashion advice for yourself. It’s up to you to take action, and stand out from the crowd, while wearing clothes that fit ( and of course having good posture). When approaching magic from the perspective of building a character both your mannerisms and your attire create the full picture. These two both have it down pat. Mysterion and Steffi have reached great heights of success in Toronto and now they are starting to travel all over the US. If you want to catch them and you live near Toronto check out the Dave and busters in Oakville where you can find them, Ben Train,  Dave Curran, Mark Korea, and myself [Jonah] come Friday and Saturday nights. Shows are at 8:30 and 10:30. Otherwise follow them up on social media below and try to see when they’re going to come to your city. I have a feeling it’s going to be sooner than you think. Will see you at our favourite place…THE FUTURE Contact Website Facebook Instagram The post How to Get Noticed as a Performer with The Sentimentalists (Mysterion & Steffi Kay) appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

In episode 47 we sit down with David Malek…THE KING. He’s not just the King at entertainment, but he’s also one of the most skilled card man alive today. This episode is all about maximizing your entertainment and exactly how to do that. If you know who this man it’s no surprise that David’s interest in magic stemming from gambling. It’s hard to birth card shark like this who wasn’t enthralled by gambling. The day that made it all change was when Darwin Ortiz performed at his college. That helped spike his interest in things like riffle stacking and the Zarro shuffle; moves that would inspire his work as a technician. David however is not your classic card magician. He’s not well known for his hours of book reading, or constant back and forth posts on the Magic Café, but for his wildly entertaining performances that send laypeople and magicians howling of laughter. I once watched him WHIP UP a room full of magicians. The audience that many of us consider to be the most difficult of audiences to stir up with material made for laypeople. Not only was everyone baffled by his magic, but you’ve never seen a room of people (so old) laugh and cheer soo hard! That’s exactly what we try to break down in this episode. He walks us through exactly what it takes to be a wildly entertaining performer. Think of the big names: Leonardo DiCaprio, Madonna, Prince. People that are worth even more than their paid. That’s exactly what it takes to be a top level magician as well. You need to give 200% to the stage. As prince said,” the show has it to be better than the album, is just has to”. In magic it’s the same. If video lives up to your life performance you need to become a better performer. You should be able to whip up the audience LIVE! The other tip that David gave us is to perform the same tricks over and over and over again. Why? Because it’s through repetition that you’re able to isolate the important moments, gather lines that are given to you from the crowd, and allow yourself to interact with the people around you. That’s what Copperfield does. That’s what Lance Burton does. It’s what the greats do, and there’s no way around it, so you should too! For me it’s simple. As soon as you can perform without thinking about what your next move is going to be, or what your next line is going to be, that’s when you are truly performing. Anything before that you’re still learning. If we take that mentality and apply it we could have the best 15 minute act in the world. If America’s got talent or Penn and Teller Fool uUs has taught us anything it’s that 15 amazing minutes of magic is more than all you need to be successful. (Google Steven Brundage) We also touch on the idea of what makes an exciting card effect. One of the things that David brought up was how little the effect matters compared to the personality and character of the performer. His examples of walking through how exciting his effects are: cutting cards, spelling tricks and counting packets. Tricks are said to be some of the most boring in magic. But I swear, if you watch David perform them you will agree that the entertainment value pushes his performance over the edge. His breakdown and analysis of how to be entertaining is exactly why he’s considered one of the greats. With skill matched by no one, a shtick which nobody could copy, and wisdom from years and years of time on stage. I heard incredible quote the other day “Only take advice from people who you would switch places with”. Well, I think David’s advice is priceless. Which probably tells you a lot about who I look up to as top of the line performers. If you want to get in contact with David you can head to either of these websites or what I recommend is following him on Instagram. Between the photos of people reacting, and the photos of people laughing David’s Instagram page is a great thing to see on your feed every day Contact Instagram Website DoubleGeorge.com markedcards.org The post Entertainment Value and Finding Your Shtick with David Malek appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

In this episode we sit down with John Guastaferro and we chat all about making your own effect awesome. John is an expert at working with different important elements and putting them together to make a beautiful trick. Since reading John’s book “One Degree” I knew that he had the right type of approach to magic. Creating beautiful masterpieces by focusing on what he knows and diving into theory, character, and branding in the process. One of the things that we chat about in the episode is the difficulty and fear of starting fresh. For me, I hate the flashing cursor on a blank screen. It makes it feel like anything you put down is wrong. John makes it very clear that he never starts fresh. By working off of what you’ve been using the last time you analyzed your magic and put pen to paper, you never have to start new. That doesn’t mean that your brand and your brand identity can’t change over time. As John explains even Instagram was once just a fun way to put a silly filter on a photo. Now, Instagram is a tool for connecting to others all around the globe in your niche! Another wildly important thing that John talks about is his constant note-taking. By making sure to take notes any time that something comes to his mind, he forget his ideas less often. By making a habit of it, you know where you keep them, how you take notes best, and you’ll be be a master in no time. He recommends things like Evernote or just the standard Apple note software because it syncs with his computer and he can make separate folders for different ideas. John also breaks down his napkin approach. It’s all about putting the characteristics down onto a napkin sized piece of paper, with either words or images so that you can better understand your brand. This was always one of my favourite parts of John’s book. My favourite magic books are all about theory. John did a great job with the theory aspect and branding in his book, and this episode! One piece of advice that he gave us was to write down effects that you like and effects that you don’t like and then try to distill why that is. It seems like all of these processes are about distilling why you like each thing, and what you want to do with that! But as always, it’s abundantly clear that you have to understand who you are before you can make the perfect effect. What that means for you is keep performing, but do a lot more writing down and breaking down of your past performances, and trying to understand who you are and what makes you special. That is the key to being a great magician. Introspective work! If you’re interested in buying either of John’s books you should head over to his website here and take a look. This weekend John is lecturing at the Blackpool magic convention, if you see him there say hi for us! We’ll be here freezing our asses off in Canada. Contact Facebook Twitter Instagram Website The post The Napkin Approach and Enjoying the Process with John Guastaferro appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

Nick Wallace spills the beans on exactly how scripting a show creates an incredibly powerful experience for your audience! In this episode he breaks down exactly how he works with a director and why he would never create a show without it. Nick started off doing Fringe Festivals just like Keith Brown from Episode 38 all about Fringe shows. If you listened to that episode, you’ll remember Keith actually mentions Nick as being his inspiration for starting to do Fringe shows! Nick started off using his brother as a director for his shows, but after meeting an awesome director that he worked with in a play he decided to pair with him. He wanted to work with someone who does this professionally! He now has something that nobody else on the podcast has spoken about. Nick has a team creating his show with him! Instead of him worrying himself about every last detail, he knows that he has a support system. In fact he has both someone to make sure that what he’s putting on stage is great, and he has the motivation to be wildly prepared because he’s getting advice from a professional. I’ve always found that working with others is something that brings out the best in you, because you’re trying to show each other your best work and be the most valuable, and earn your keep. Since all magicians talk about making an experience for their audience why aren’t more of us talking to directors to make our shows? Nick takes this into his own hands. He creates a unique experience by creating a séance for his audience making sure not to overdo the magic. Instead, Nick does his best to scare his audiences, by being clear, subtle and articulate. Finally we deep dove into the topic of scripting. When you work with a director, you need to script your material. You need to have something to edit, you need to be able to execute everything that you planned. Not only is your success dependent on it, but so is your directors success. Nick scripts his entire show, memorizes it, performs it, and is not afraid to rescript, replace, or remove things altogether. Just like two months ago, when the theme was  “crafting your show”, Nick highlights most important point of all. The importance of knowing exactly who you are as a performer so that when you add new material and try to script your act, you know exactly what to do.   Contact Facebook Instagram Website The post Episode 45 – Scripting and Working with a Director with Nick Wallace appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

In this episode we sit down with James Harrison to talk all about the importance of your props, your identity and paying your dues. James was a special guest on the podcast because he won January’s contest. But we’ve known James for a long time. He’s been a friend of ours from Toronto* for years! James is the only pickpocket that I know in person and to tell you the truth i’ve never seen him pick a picket. I’ve only ever seen him do awesome magic (and steal a couple watches). As he expressed on the podcast he’s been trying to expand into other fields. One of the things that he wants to play with is presenting a magic show which isn’t all positive vibes. Instead James wants to experiment with different things in magic. Giving your audience different feelings. Feelings like uneasiness and feelings like not knowing if what you did was real or not. In an earlier episode Ben Train stands for the fact that one should not lead their audience to believe that they have powers which they don’t actually have. James disagrees with that in this episode since he thinks that you should put forth something and not necessarily worry about exactly how your audience perceives it.   Think back to High sSchool english class even if you read a book by an author that was still alive did you ever send an email to ask what they really meant? Of course not! Once art is created and put into the world you cannot control how people perceive it! Another thing we spoke about on the episode of the podcast was the need for originality. Do you need to have an original effect? An original method? An original premise? The answer from the episode is it depends on what you’re using it for. If you’re using it for claiming that it’s your own then you need to have your own method or at least a wildly original presentation. If you are using it as a performer and you purchased the trick it’s not the end of the world if you do what is out of the box. You should slowly make it your own instead of coming up with some convoluted garbage. Let your expirience and your character help shape it as your own.  It’s important that these questions have context. If you’re performing for your friends you can do a trick exactly the way the creator did it with the same handling and very similar pattern and that’s OK. You bought the trick and you’re allowed to do it! It’s frowned upon by the magic community, but that’s OK you’re not performing it for the magic community! What you have to think about is when you’re performing for paying audiences. If you’re performing for paying audiences then it’s OK to use the method that you bought but it’s important that eventually your presentations become personalized and unique. Don’t be the guy doing someone else’s trick with someone else’s performance for an audience that hired you! You want to be doing your unique performance for an audience that hired you. Contact Facebook Twitter Instagram Website   If you actually perform, and you want some help I have a recommendation. Join us on a 7-day Masterpiece Challenge! I want 100 people to join me on a challenge to turn a trick into a masterpiece, just head to discourseinmagic.com/masterpiece  The post The Effect Month: Props, Identity, and Paying Your Dues with James Harrison appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

In episode 43 we sit with Chad Juros to tell us his story of magic. I’ll save most of the details for the episode itself, but I can provide you with a short version of Chads incredible story. Chad was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia as a child. During many of his years and months at the hospital Chads father brought magic to help take his mind off of things. That repeated itself a second round as Chad returned to the hospital a few years later.  Fast forward a few years more and Chad ended up performing magic for his father bedside in the hospital. His father was was given under a year to live after discovering brain tumors. You can imagine the heart ache that has been brought to a family, childhood cancer, and death of a parent, but Chad responds with positivity and fulfilling his fathers dying wishes to continue to spread his magic wherever he goes. With his fathers final wishes Chad builds a foundation called Spread the Magic. In it Chad is able to help struggling patients, and is able to perform magic and help kids get their mind off of the illnesses that are ailing them. Chad turns quite an eye opening story, into an inspiring piece. Most importantly he shares how he took that story and used it to drive what he does today. Using your experiences, ideas and talents to help the world are some of the best tools that you can use. In this episode we chat about the segment that he had with David Copperfield on Good Morning America. The clip is below, and I highly recommend you watch it, it compliments the episodes very well!   He’s also been on Fool Us, and yes, we attached it below   If you want to get in touch with chad feel free to contact him below on social media, from his website, or check out his new promo video! Contact Facebook Twitter Website The post Using Magic to Spread an Important Message with Chad Juros appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

Welcome to our first ever live show! We invited Wes Barker, Eric Leclerc and Chris Ramsay to Toronto to record an episode but we said HEY, why don’t we invite the local magicians too. SO WE DID! And it was a blast! Take a look! from left: Jonah Babins, Chris Ramsay, Eric Leclerc, Wes Barker, Tyler Williams (Thanks to Eric Jackson for the photo) Currently if you want to see the live video from the event, you can check our Facebook page. But we’ll be taking it down shortly since Chris Ramsay is planning on releasing some footage from the event on his account, and it’ll be better than what my iphone + tripod shot. We touched on topics like interacting with you fans, managing the regular creation of content, what is good magic content, creating under a tight time frame, new ideas, clickbait magic and tons of other topics that matter to you. If you have every worried about your magic content not being good enough or not getting enough views you’ll probably enjoy the episode. More than that there’s quite a bit of jokes and antics in the episode because put these 3 guys on stage with alcohol and you get something different that on stage with a deck of cards. We dipped into all major channels from TV to Youtube, to Facebook and even into Vine for a little bit, we spent most of the time talking about Youtube. If you want to check out what these guys have been up to you, I’ll link below to some awesome videos from their accounts! Chris Ramsay Wes Barker Eric Leclerc   Leave a comment below, and let us know what you thought of the live show? Should we do a live show in your city? Let us know! The post Live in Toronto – Views, Comments, and Awesome Magic Content with Chris Ramsay, Eric Leclerc, and Wes Barker appeared first on Discourse in Magic.