Discourse in Magic

In episode 28 we had the wonderful Lou Serrano chat with us about exactly how to book gigs. As he says, there isn’t one way to get gigs, but there are 50 ways. Lou basically walks us through 5 or 6 of them in this episode. We decided to chat with him about getting booked as a magician mostly for closeup magicians in the beginning stages. The more advice that we try to get that’s applicable to us, the better chance we’re going to be able to apply what we learn, and actually test it out. As Lou explains it by the end of the podcast, the only thing that we really need to do is take action. There are enough steps and tips in this episode that as long as you take action you will see rewards. Just do it! We chat about the benefits and pitfalls of cold calling, cold emailing and snail mail. Sending a standard newsletter in the mail. Since no performers are using regular mail, you’ll have the upper hand. He tells us exactly how he gets restaurants gigs. Since some gigs could last years and years, its worth playing the numbers game and reaching out to dozens of restaurants to find the best one. You can tell by the way Lou speaks and the volume of content that he shares that he knows his stuff. As a matter of fact he has a website called www.sixfiguremagic.com , Enter the coupon code: “discourse” you can get 20% of his product. If you’re a magician looking to get better at the business and marketing of magic, this is a product for you! If you’re interested but you aren’t 100% sure about his Six Figure Magic. I urge you to google it, and read some reviews. It seems like everyone has only amazing things to say about the program, and it you’re looking to invest in yourself. This is the way to do it! Contact Website (lou Serrano), sixfiguremagic.com, LouSerranoMarketing.com Facebook Twitter Youtube The post Exactly What it Takes to Get Endless Bookings with Lou Serrano appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

If you are into creative methods for magic, then I recommend listening to this episode. Mathieu Bich turns the standard notions of creativity on their head by chatting about the process he goes through to create magic, More importantly he chat’s about the purpose of his magic creation: himself. That seems to be the key to creating awesome magic. Finding the solutions you want to be found is easier to find by looking inside for the solutions instead of outside to resources. He walks us through his journey of becoming a creator and exactly how and why he creates, and even walks us through what he was thinking and feeling in his Penn and Teller Fool Us performance. You can check this out here, and watch what he does to Penn and Teller: Since his first appearance on Theory11 to his FISMm and Penn ant Teller debut, he’s made his mark on the modern magic community.  His approaches are unique, so is his insight, and most importantly he has his own theory, ideas, and structures that he uses to invent, and make his magic awesome. Bich is one of this generations best creators. He’s not looking for a 400th way to do the same trick. He’s innovating, and he’s innovating for the one magician he needs to create for: himself The best past was that it was such a refreshing take on being creative in the art of magic. Most people subscribe to the thought of endlessly sharing and endlessly learning. He is a true artist in the sense that he is so much more focused on creation for his own purpose instead of that of others.   Since often his purpose for creating new magic methods is so that it can make him happy, and please his needs, he ends up creating mountains more magic, for his own benefit. Which of course he likes because he created it for himself. I would love to know what you all think of this interview Check out some of his awesome magic:   Contact Website Twitter Let us know in the comments below what you thought about the episode! The post Creativity Through Self Expression Instead of Endless Resources with Mathieu Bich appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

In this episode we sit down with the amazing Youtube star Daniel Fernandez. When I say amazing youtube star, I’m both referring to his 720,000+ subscribers, and his amazing videos that have me smiling, and watching to the end. If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the video where he mentions flying out one of his subscribers: But if you haven’t seen his youtube channel yet, I would totally recommend checking it out. He creates awesome videos all about magic. And he’s someone making massive waves in the youtube world spreading the same awesome magic that we’re a part of. Check this out too!   **If you are looking for the contest that we mentioned in the episode feel free to click here and try to win! Otherwise, I really recommend checking out Daniel Fernandez’s videos, channel and everything else. He’s a great voice for youtube, magic, being flirtatious with ladies, and tons of other areas he was a real blast to chat with.   Follow da tings! Contact Twitter Youtube Instagram   PS. If you like amazing magic tips and resources for becoming a better magicians in performance and business. Sign up for our newsletter –> We’ll send you our Theory Resource Guide for FREE <3 See you there! Awesome! Welcome to the newsletter family <3. Go check your email we sent you a free Gift! There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. Email Address I'd like to receive the free email course. Subscribe The post Why Magic is Flirtatious, and How to Treat it That Way with Daniel Fernandez appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

In this episode we sit down with the one and only Chris Wiehl to chat about being original and creative with magic effects. If you aren’t familiar with Chris’ magic, check out any of the following tricks he’s created. And All Will Be Consumed Rip Senses Arthur – PS. If you want to win ARTHUR you can try out our September Contest If you just watch any one of those you’ll get an opportunity to see how creative he is. In the episode he explains that he doesn’t just sit down and create a new effect. Ideas, premises, and methods all come from jamming, learning, compromising and being open. Interestingly enough we speak about some of his favourite performers, who surprisingly enough aren’t big method creators. There’s some inspiration for you if you aren’t a big method creator (THATS US TOO), there are so many different ways to be creative. We once again want to thank Chris for donating ARTHUR for the winner of Septembers contest. If you haven’t entered the contest yet, click here to go see how you can win an arthur Contact Website Twitter Facebook Instagram   PS. If you like amazing magic tips and resources for becoming a better magicians in performance and business. Sign up for our newsletter –> We’ll send you our Theory Resource Guide for FREE <3 See you there! Awesome! Welcome to the newsletter family <3. Go check your email we sent you a free Gift! There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. Email Address I'd like to receive the free email course. Subscribe The post How to be Creative and Original with Methods with Chris Wiehl appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

In this Episode we got to sit down with the one and only Shawn Farquhar to talk about how to fool Penn and Teller, or win a contest like FISM, twice! If you haven’t had the opportunity to see any of Shawn’s recent fooling videos you can check them out here: In our episode we walk through both of his Fool Us performances, and how he did it. Since we’re catching him right on the front end of his second Fool Us performance going viral, we chatted quite a bit about the experience. If you want the inside scoop on how Penn and Teller act backstage after they were fooled Shawn goes into great detail about it in the episode. It turns out that Shawn was more into putting on good TV then he was about fooling them – But it looks like he did both! Then we trace further back in time to his two gold medals at FISM, and why it took some silver medals along the road to get there. The secrets to both fooling Penn and Teller, and winning FISM turns out to be the same: know your audience. For Penn and Teller, the secret is to play on their knowledge of magic, and for FISM – just play by the rules. Through Shawn’s stories we dive into how he selects songs to go with his routines, and my favourite part is a long list of watch stealing stories that either went horribly wrong or horribly right. If you are interested in Shawn you can usually find him on a cruise ship, or… lets be honest, at an airport. Or, if you want to find him online check out his store Palmer Magic Or check out his personal website and follow him on any and all of the social medias Contact Website Facebook Instagram Twitter   As always please let us know what you think of the episode in the comments below The post How to Fool Penn & Teller and Win FISM… Twice with Shawn Farquhar appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

In this episode we packed up our bags and travelled to Toronto (hehe) to our good friend Bobby Motta’s house. If you know anything about Bobby, you know that he is one of Toronto’s Top Mentalist and is a very very bright guy. In the episode we chat about some of the differences between magic and mentalism, and why Bobby chose mentalism over magic in the end. If you’ve ever seen one of Bobby’s shows (and you should), you would know that he has found his niche. One of the things we chat about in this episode is the relationship between mentalism and science, and truth/ honestly (a la Ben Train’s episode). Bobby’s view is much less concerned with negatively affecting the audience. Since they are there for a performance, under the umbrella of theatre, he includes a disclaimer. If people believe what he’s saying he doesn’t worry so much about it. When we chat about science he tells us a story, that I think is very relatable about his performance for some people at LifeLabs. I think that it helps illuminate that especially with mentalism, not everyone views it the same way. Not everyone is going to believe the mumbo jumbo that we’re saying and THATS OKAY. As Bobby says: “As long as they leave feeling something” you’ve done your job. And I think a great view. I think it’s a nice idea to make everyone feel something similar, but if it’s not possible, making sure that everybody feels something, and leaves the show thinking about it, and not thinking about what meal they’re about to eat, then you did your job. On the note of Bobby Motta, this month (AUGUST) we have a simple simple simple contest. If you Tweet at us you can win a copy of Bobby Motta and Peter Mckinnon’s Blackmail. Take a look below:   If you’re from Toronto Bobby has a show at Dave and Busters on Friday and Saturday Nights called Grey Matter that is worth checking out! Contact Website Twitter Instagram Facebook   The post Why Mentalism is More Relatable for Audiences Than Magic with Bobby Motta appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

In this Episode we sit down with our good friend Scott Hammel to talk about stunts. Scotty is a motivational speaker who uses magic and stunts as a tool to help deliver his message. We wanted to chat with him about a lot of the “Why and How’s” of stunt work, to better understand the niche that he’s found himself in. Scotty has a massive range of stunts under his belt, from escaping from a straight jacket hanging upside-down from a hot air balloon, to catching a bullet being shot at him. While I could describe them to you below I have attached a few videos from his youtube channel so you can see what he’s all about Like here where he juggles live foireworks   Or here: where he jumps out of an airplane blindfolded and handcuffed   We think that Scotty is an inspiration, and a great friend. In the episode he doesn’t reference any resources, so we don’t have much more to add on this page. Please check out his Youtube Channel, he has a ton of great material. As well the stunt he’s talking about at the end of the episode is coming up soon, so stay tuned for that announcement and how to keep up to date with the wonderful things he’s up to! Contact Twitter Instagram Youtube Website The post Why Risk Your Life on a Stunt and How To Try It At Home with Scott Hammell appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

In this episode we got an opportunity to sit down with our friends at Art of Magic: Dave (of Dan and Dave), and Elliott Terral. It was a very insightful conversation about art, and how it applies to the world of cardisrty and the world of magic, and how they are evolving right now and in the future. At the start, we spoke about the launch and purpose behind Art of Magic. Of course we had to dive a little bit into the Dan and Dave story to find out why the separation and deviation from the classic Dan and Dave brand. Dave explained that there wasn’t as much room to grow when it was all under the same roof, but now that they have separated magic and cardistry (as well as puzzles and games) each individual brand has the space to really hone an idea. The goal of Art of Magic is a curated resource for people to trace the journey through magic, and inspire them to make it more artistic. They have created just that. The design and organization of the site make it look and feel top notch, a real beauty to explore, but the separation of websites has allowed home pages and banner photos of this website to not be more playing cards, and more cardistry, which is visually appealing, but detracting from magic. We touch on the fact that with the creation of things like this, people coming into magic are very lucky to have a world of incredibly curated magic at their fingertips, instead of when we were kids, scrolling youtube, watching VHS tapes, or buying doohickeys and tiddlywinks and the magic store. Then, we dive into the world of cardistry, which is very exciting for us, since we aren’t cardists, but we are of course blown away by what they do. The world of cardistry is exploding right now. There’s development in style where people are creating their own design and style, like isolations or #carddestroy. More specifically we chat about the personal styles, music choices and gear of cardists. How it’s representative of the rebellion movement given the age range, and for us, it reminds us of the breakdancing movement. But most importantly it is real self expression, between the recording of it, editing, music selection, deck choice, personal style, and that’s not even talking about the cardistry. Maybe instead of the next dance movie STEP UP 17, where someone makes it against all odds by dancing, we have the underground cardistry world, and people making it big, by flipping cards around their fingers at underground competitions. Since the art is in such an evolutionary phase, there are more and more creations happening each day, and as they both explain, its such a unique form of self expression because unlike magic, there isn’t really a goal in mind, it is, once again just like dance. Finally we dig into the age old question “is magic art?”. As one can imagine we bring up other art forms like painting, and elliot brings up a beautiful comparison between if all paintings are art, and why or why not. You really do have to listen to understand the details of their points. Nothing new in the discussion of the art, but definitely something unique given their position, perspective, and closeness to cardisty. We super enjoyed the interview, and if you are interested in their new(ish) website and project Art of Magic, I super recommend checking it out! As well if you are interested in some of the best designer decks in the world as well as some puzzles I would recommend checking out Art of Play, to see what they have to offer The post Art of Magic, Art of Play and The Importance of Style and Design with Dave Buck and Elliott Terral appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

In this Episode Mark talks about his approach to magic, and comedy from the perspective from an actor, and an expert in theatre. We hear the beginning of his story, where he used to perform in class, and regularly visit Browsers Den to buy tricks for the following week, and it starts to all make sense. In the intro and outro we spoke about marks viral video about Pokemon Go, which exploded yesterday. We totally recommend checking you out, if you haven’t (we know you have already though). Of course, we know Mark from Sorcerers Safari Magic camp, where we’ve known each other through our teens, and some of our growth in magic. That being said, he’s the funniest person we’ve ever seen on stage, and he’s pretty funny offstage too (as you can tell in the episode). His approach to magic is very different. We spoke about the idea of storytelling in magic. He gave some great advice about making the story more present, and setting stakes on the night. With that, we come to an idea which we’ve spoken about very often at discourse in magic. The idea, that an obviously fictional premise allows the audience to want to enjoy it, and believe it, just as someone would do with theatre. Of course an important point that Mark shared is that the story on stage needs to be compelling, and an entertaining story, which is unfolding live. Since Mark comes from an acting background, he recommends taking acting classes. As he explains it, it can’t hurt, it can only help. He is absolutely right! We jump into the conversation of using hack lines, and non sequiturs. We want a full show, and to interrupt it with abrupt comedy comes out of nowhere. Even if it ends up funny, there’s a better chance they will remember your comedy if it is pertinent to your show, and not out of the blue. His advice for inspiration isn’t to watch comedic magicians, but instead to watch funny people. Funny movies, comedians, or anything like that to help inspire your delivery, without copying others work. When trying to add comedy, his first approach is instead of writing for what other people will like, write what you think will be funny. It’s a much better way to actually find your audience, because if you’re using hack lines, you may grow to resent the lines and tricks that you have. We then chat about the importance of filming your show, and watching or breaking it down afterwards. It’s common to think that when you’re recording it, the shows are going to go differently. But we recommend knowing that it’s just for you, and that it doesn’t need to be posted on any social media or anywhere. If you record all of your shows, then that will become the norm, and you can study it, breaking it down play by play. He didn’t recommend many specific resources for us to link to, but I think that the advice in the episode is top notch. We thing it’s very well suited for you, if you’re a stage performer, or a performer of any sort. Contact Noodle Boys (Facebook) Website Twitter Instagram   The post How to Add Comedy to Your Magic Without Hack Lines with Mark Corriea appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

In this episode of Discourse in Magic we got to sit down with our good friend Rosemary Reid to chat about women in magic. Rosemary has a very reasonable approach to why there aren’t that many women in magic. She expresses that the problems women face in 2016 are the same issues that women face in magic. In addition the hurdles that magicians face, female magicians face as well. Since Rosemary wan’t raised into a family of magicians or anything of that sort she was pulled into magic through the Toronto magic community. Which community? Sorcerers Safari (surprise). It played and still plays a massive role in her (and our) magic lives. Of course as a Toronto magician places like Browsers Den are particularly important for the community as well, and Jeff the owner has been nothing but amazing and encouraging. In 2016, as we discuss in the episode there are more and more women in magic. With names like Raven, Suzanne and Billy Kid, it’s awesome to see the scene exploding, and maybe the availability of these performers as idols and mentors might help the growth in the coming years! But women in magic isn’t new, we learned a ton in this episode from Rosemary about important female magicians that we didn’t k now about. Names like Dell O’Dell, who pioneered magic on television, but often doesn’t get named alongside the greats all that often. At one point in the episode there was a great debate, between Tyler and I. The discussion was one of nature versus nurture. Wether there’s anything unique about men or unique about women that’s creating the divide, or wether it’s relevant to look into it at all. Finally we spoke about the famous trick of cutting a women in half, and it’s origins and I learned a ton! Apparently the trick was performed, and pioneered by P.T. Selbit during the early 1920’s. This is particularly relevant given the timing of the suffrage movement; women getting the right to vote. With information like that one can tell that it’s difficult to separate art from the time period it was created in. Even more so when we found out that he seeks out Christabel Pankhurst, a leader of the movement, and called her out and asked if he could saw her in half.  If you want to learn a little bit more about the subject Jim Steinmier has written at great lengths about the subject. So what do you think? Is there an aspect of magic that is causing more men to be in it than women based on the way men and women are innately, or is it purely societal. Where do you think it’s going? Do you think the percentage of women in magic is growing, or that it’s staying the same as a small percentage? Let us know what you think about any of this in the comments below! Contact Website Instagram The post Women in Magic with Rosemary Reid appeared first on Discourse in Magic.