Ben Harris, Paddle King, Waffle, Comments #49

Hello, welcome to Real Magic Review. My name is Steve Faulkner and this is the Comments on Comments show where I read comments out loud, basically, to save me answering them on... Oh, hello, it's starting on there now. Oh no, I've got my own self coming back at me. That wasn't good, was it? Anyway, where was I? Hello. Before we carry on, if you like this, hit the like button. If you don't subscribe yet, hit that. Hit the little bell icon next to it when I can't make the live session so you don't turn up and get all disappointed. Or you don't turn up and get disappointed. And have a look at onlinemagic.co. That's my online magic program. There are 800 videos now. 117th live session tonight. Last week we had Mark Leverage. It was a great one last week. It was so good. Mark Leverage showed some ring and string stuff that even though I'd seen it before, fooled me. People were like, Pete was saying, I thought he had an extra ring. I did too. Thought there were other gimmicks involved. Just pure sleight of hand. Just some really, really proper great commercial stuff. So you get all that for 9.99 a month. That's less than a coffee a week. So yeah, have a look at that, onlinemagic.co. So just say hello, Eamon, how you doing? Oh, thanks Eamon. I think you signed up for online magic today. Did you? I think I looked and saw that. Tom's, Tom Winder, how you doing? Tom Mucker, how are you? Snowing, I'm jealous. Snow's beautiful. I love it when it snows. Obviously not when it kind of messes everything up. Even though one year I did lose quite a lot of work, but I was so excited about the snow that it didn't matter until I realized I had to pay my bills and couldn't. Stuart, how you doing? Gary, nice to see you. Some good online magic people here. David M., how are you doing? Don't tell Steve he's a guy. Manish, I know you're well. Yeah, you got a bit, I'm gonna have a beer tonight, I think. I think I'm gonna have a stout after the live session tonight because it's been a good week, but I'm looking forward to sitting down with a stout and practicing my contact juggling. That's my evening routine at the moment. Any questions you've got, let me know. If not, I'll crack on. I'm gonna talk a little bit about the Ben Harris interview and the reason why I haven't done more interviews and the reason why I'm gonna do more interviews because I think, for me, they're a really good challenge, they're inspiring, and I get so much out of it, and it's a real win-win, isn't it? It's a win-win-win. It's a win for me because I really love it. It's a win for the person on there, hopefully, because they always say they've really enjoyed it, and if they're talking about product or something, which it's never like a sales pitch. We're talking about life, and obviously if someone's got a book, et cetera, it's a win for them and hopefully a win for you as well because you're hearing people often talk about stuff they don't usually talk about. I try not to stick to the usual questions and just see where it goes, which is quite scary, and I get quite nervous, which is why I don't do more of them. Every time I do one, I think the last one before, I think it was Joshua J, the last one, God, that's ages ago, was it? Or did I, before Ben, if I don't do one for a while, I think I'll get convinced I'm not very good at it, and then I kind of go, oh no, I'm gonna be terrible. So I'm gonna make myself do it. I've already asked one other person to do one, and they said yes, unbelievably, and that is exciting, really exciting. It's top of the tree stuff for me, so that's coming up at some point, but I need to do more. So if there's anybody you want me to interview, do let me know in the comments. You can let me know here, but I might not remember. If you let me know in the comments once this is live, or email me steve at onlinemagic.co, I can do that, and of course, you can email me anything. If there's anything you want, any questions you want me to answer on this show, do email me. You know, I will answer them. You know, I'm always looking for stuff to talk about, and if you don't ask me, I'm just guessing on what would be interesting. I'm gonna do a lot more of that. I've decided probably to do less reviews. Well, I have decided to do less reviews because I want to still review the things that I think are really worth looking at and you should know about, but I'm gonna do less of kind of just getting through the reviews. I get really stressed. I've got a box of review stuff there. A lot of it I didn't really ask to get, and I feel then obliged to review it, and it takes so much time. You know, even the panel trip took me like two days of looking at it and kind of working out what I wanted to do with it, a little performance. So I'm not saying that's bad, it's great, but you know, sometimes I look at it and go, that's a lot of time, isn't it? I could be like putting more into the course or more into answering genuine questions that you have. Now, it doesn't mean I'm not gonna review stuff. I love doing it and it's a good way to talk about magic and it's interesting, but anything you want answered, do, I will take you seriously. I will answer it, and if I don't answer it, it's just because I've forgotten, so you've always got to ask me again because I'm one of them people. So with, so Ben Harris conversation, this was just really, I feel a bit self-indulgent reading these out because I'm gonna, they're all just lovely things. Alec Schregel from Chicago. That conversation also left me in a better mood. What a great and thoughtful individual. Thank you for sharing this with us. You're welcome, Alec. Math music structure, what a great review. There's a huge difference between sticking with a project until you get something and sticking with a project until you get everything, and that's, we were talking about this idea of, you know, coming up with, and Ben's mentioned it, I think he mentioned it on the Insider with Damien as well, in slightly, I think we were talking about a similar thing, but that thing of you come up with an idea. No, he was talking about machinations with Damien, and we were talking about Svengali, and machinations, you know, the trapdoor card, but that thing of taking something to a certain level and then leaving it, and that thing that if you just stay with it, you can really uncover some incredible stuff, and he's done that with Symmetry and Parity and the Chimera deck, like, in spades. I mean, it's just, I was playing with it again today, just the simple Svengali stuff, just how to make it so magical and fooling, and I know what he's saying. He's saying that people took the idea to a certain level and then left it, and I think sometimes you have to do that. You know, maybe for you personally, that's all you want to do with it, but then for someone else to take it and run with it, and I think that's, there's an issue. Everybody's so obsessed with everybody ripping everybody off at the moment, and I think there is obviously, that's a problem. You know, some ripping off an idea is a problem as their own. That's a different thing, but I'm talking about that thing of someone taking an existing idea and saying, that's great, but you can do this, this, this with it, and expanding it because, again, that person might have other stuff to do. They've gone, like, this is good enough for me. I'll put it out there, but I think, with permission, you know, there's nothing wrong at all with taking ideas, taking old ideas. You know, Richard Sanders has done it a lot. He's done it with, like, fiber optics. He's done some classic stuff and he's created beautiful routines. You know, the paddle move, taking stuff. So I like that. I like people sort of going back and stripping stuff down and sometimes modernizing it or looking at it in a slightly different way or maybe a more magical way or taking something that everybody knows and doing it in a way that will fool everybody and magicians and non-magicians, and they wouldn't dream that there'd be anything going on, you know, with a gimmick deck. I know Luke Jermay I've seen do this with stripper decks and things, just completely, not just for fooling magicians, but creating a lovely, magical routine that you just wouldn't think is that thing. So, you know, I really get what you're saying there and I think that's sticking with something and it's so hard to do. This is what I was saying also, that when you've got so many downloads, downloads are so easy to get now. If you've got a computer full of downloads, how hard is it to stick with one thing long enough to really, really work it? I'm going back to a lot of stuff now. I also think this is the case with music. I spoke about this on Facebook a lot the other day on my Facebook Live, that we are so used to moving on now that you know that, and my example, and I know some of you might not like it, but my example is doing a New Arctic Monkeys album. I love the album and it's, for me, it's one of the best albums I've heard in a very, very, very long time. Now, when I first listened to it, I was like, eh, second time, that's all right, third, fourth, it was like the fifth or sixth time where it clicked, and I don't usually do that with music. I look to it once and go, I know something else, find something else, and I think that's probably the reason I haven't found new music for a long time, and the only reason I stuck with the Monkeys one was because I kind of know them and I kind of had faith that there was, I could hear there was something in it. Now, I think that's the same with magic. I think sometimes we look at something briefly, and because we've got so, we can so easily go on to the next thing, that it's easy to go, yeah, it kind of doesn't work, and I think just to stay with something, or a trick in a book, you know, don't read the whole book. If you feel that there's something there, stay with that one thing and explore it and pick it apart and see what you can get out of it, and I think that you can find something that you won't see straight away. Same with music, same with everything. Same with movies. There's movies I've seen a second time, I go, oh, I loved this first time, I didn't like it, so, yeah, I really, really recommend doing that. Very, very difficult thing to do, especially for people like me that just have that forward momentum all the time. Very hard to stay with something. Gary, who's here, absolutely loved this interview. What a legend, can't wait to see more. Yeah, we're doing another one in January. He did mention his new book is coming out in January, which is very, very, very exciting. It's right up my street. Just finished Symmetry Book for the First Read. This is for Riesp, R-I-E-S-P-A-5-1-7. Just finished the Symmetry Book for the First Read. Very hard to leave the cards in the box, and just, isn't it just? But it's a good thing to do, I think, to try and do, and then go back. I do think he succeeds to have the characters develop itself in this book. Very nice to have this conversation besides it, but yeah, so we talked about the Stephen King thing of not necessarily having a strict plot, you know, letting the characters develop in a story, which is what Stephen King does, and not go, well, I've got to go there, there, there, and there, and I think with magic, having that freedom to go, okay, we might start thinking we're gonna go there, but actually, we might end up there, and what I didn't mention is that I, it was really refreshing to read, I read Stephen King say that in On Writing, saying, look, if you're the sort of person that doesn't adhere very easily to a structure, which I can't with ADHD, it's very, very difficult for me to do, then it's okay not to, and I've found this. Every single blog I've written, every single show I've written, which is like one, but each part of that show started as something, and then I just couldn't keep it, and then it became something completely different. Then I think with magic, you know, if you read a routine in a book, don't think you've just got, you know, if you feel you're going somewhere, just go with it and see what happens. I think it's a lovely way to look at it, and it's kind of freeing for certain people. For Eamon, who's here, this is a great interviewer, I've always been a fan of Ben Harris, he's a talented, creative genius. I loved his effect, solid gold, easy action. Yeah, I don't know that, where do you find that? Things being re-released, oh, there you go. Classic, thanks for this, Steve, you're a great interviewer, that's very kind, thank you. Absolutely wonderful interview from Anthony John Roberts, 2612, thank you so much, Steve and Ben. Just loads of really, really lovely things, I won't read them all out, it feels a bit self-indulgent. Paul Fitzgerald, 9413, Ben is an amazing creator and gentleman, check out his creations. X-ray, yeah, I haven't looked at X-ray yet, I didn't, that's one I didn't get to. Silent running, thought it was great. Remote control, haven't looked at that. Beautiful effects that work in the real world. Congrats to also Steve for pulling that off this interview. Oh, that's lovely, from the Flying Lizards. Hi Steve, this is the first video of yours that I've watched other than your magic reviews, it was wonderful, thank you. Great interview, thanks Steve and Ben, from Magic Man. Robert Ball Magician, hey there Robert, hope you're well, mate, it was fantastic, great interview, thank you. Magic Magic Man, first time I saw the floating match, and that's a lot of people don't know if you didn't watch the interview, Ben invented the floating match thing, you're getting all the magic sets and the magic, Marvin's magic sets, and he was completely ripped off, he didn't get anything for it. But he did tell a nice story, that Murphy's Magic gave back in the day, said look, we're gonna sell all these rip-offs, because that's what everybody's doing, it's all there, but we're gonna give you a cut, and he still gets royalty checks, and they didn't have to do that, so I thought that was quite a nice thing. The first time I saw the floating match, from Magic Magic Man, was in the mid-90s, on the shopping channel QVC, they were selling a Marvin's magic close-up set, and I now assume they didn't have the rights either, which is really bad, yeah, I don't think anybody did, well I presume there were no rights as such to have, it was more an ethical thing, I don't think anybody done anything illegal, that it was unethical to take something and just mass-produce it, and I presume there was nothing that could have been done about it, because it's a tough thing, isn't it, to kind of niche thing that we're doing here, so it's hard to stop. So, let me have a look, thanks Tom for saying it sounded good. I'm glad, yeah, thanks Eamon for signing up to OnlineMagic.co, my online magic. Let me have a look. Have you ever properly freaked someone out? I had a friend 20 years ago, and I was good-ish, she absolutely lost it when I did magic, shaking crying and terrified of me, she never spoke to me again. I've had a couple of things at gigs, definitely that. Weirdly enough, I always talk about one of the things that used to get it a lot, not necessarily in sort of crime, but that really was the center tear, and I always talk about this thing of don't underestimate, don't fall into the trap of thinking, well, why would you tear it up? Don't worry, if you're performing it well, it's almost an incident, it's like, let's get rid of it, you know, or I used to say, look, you can't really burn this, but you can't really do it anymore, you know, we'll rip it up, and they would just forget that that happened really a lot of the time, and the strongest responses I've had are from things like that. That kind of fear, I mean, don't get me wrong, I've had people cheering and stuff like that, but that thing of, that kind of dart, and that's why, with mentalism, I think you've got to be careful, not careful as, well, you have, because it can really, really get to people, you know, when people, that's why your scripting's so important, that, you know, when you think of someone, you think of family, you think of someone that's passed, or something like that, so it doesn't go to that place, and that's part of it, and you've got to be very sensitive, but I think that, yeah, I've had that definitely with a lot of mentors and stuff, and I think that's why people get so intoxicated to be able to get that response, but yeah, and people, obviously, that are very, very superstitious, you know, won't believe you when you tell them it's a trick, you know, it's just a trick, man, no, it's not, yeah, so it just put me off magic, just coming back to it, anyone else had this, yeah, Tom, I can relate to it, I really, really can, it can happen, it doesn't happen too much, and I think if that sort of thing does happen, I do say, look, don't worry, it's a trick, it's, I'm happy to say that, you know, it's just fooling the mind, like an optical illusion, you know, about telling that sort of stuff, but yeah, I'd like to know, Tom, what effect you did, can't even remember, just standard coin and card stuff, Raven, yeah, well, the Ravens don't, you know, the Raven's incredible, that is, yeah, it's just a bit of a faff, isn't it? That's why nobody does it, but it's great, with cards in the hand, it was even better, what was that? Oh, yes, the book, yes, yeah, going through Ben's book, yeah, it's absolutely brilliant, with the cards in the hand, the tardy and the case, the case trick is brilliant, it wasn't what I wanted, I was presenting a skill rather than real magic, Tom Wyndham, I imagine, this is for Tom, Tom's talking about his response he got, that was kind of over the top, I imagine you wouldn't have done it if you knew it was gonna freak someone out, I suppose, try not to, yeah, don't let it put you off, I mean, that, you know, I get weird, weird, weird responses, don't even put you off if you die on your ass, you know, that happens, you know, it's a totally different thing, but I think that it's like that, it's an anomaly, you don't really get that thing usually, but you will get people that respond, and, you know, that's, I don't know if any, we can't control that, but, you know, maybe in doing it now, I think magic's probably a little bit more out there, people know a bit more about it, you know, there's a lot more on TV now other than just what we used to be, and YouTube, of course. Solid Gold Easy Action by Ben Harris is a signed card to Envelope that he released in the late 80s or early 90s, I think it's just been re-released, great, thanks, Hayden. Right, a little bit on Paddle King, now this is very kind, because I said in the, I did this, if you look at my Instagram, at Steve Faulkner, there's one at Real Magic Review, but I tend to just put review stuff on there, but if you want the sort of, the mix of stuff, the Paddle thing was interesting, because I got a really good response, not just on here on Facebook and stuff like that, a few people bought it just on that, and I, you know, there's a few moments where I kind of re-gripped it to prepare for the move, and someone said something on TikTok, and I kind of went, and he said, no, you're giving it away straight away, and I was like, no I'm not, because people think I'm just re-gripping it to show it, and by saying it, you're giving it away, and actually it didn't offend me at all, and he's kind of right, because it isn't what you want, you don't, you want to do it smoothly, but obviously as you know, I'm reviewing stuff, I'm doing it quickly, which is another reason why I want to do less reviews, because I want to spend time with things, so I kind of put it out there to for, okay, it doesn't look great, but are any non-magicians going to pick up on it? Not one person did, and they do, you know, a lot of people go, I can see that, you know, I'm not saying they didn't know how it was done, some people will know that move, but there was a kicker at the end, and I think that, and someone did say, you know, I prefer the one with the coins and the money, and that is better, but I just had limited time, so I worked with the stuff that you can do straight out of the box, but there is, I think it's really, really lovely, and I really, there's something really lovely about that trick anyway, I've always loved paddle tricks, I think, you know, I think the best paddle tricks, even if you kind of know the move, have kickers in them, and you can't really follow it, it's like the Lincoln rings, you know, if people see a good Lincoln ring routine, even if they've seen the one in the kids magic sets with the gap, they still, I showed some people the other day when they were shooting this documentary, and they couldn't, they knew there was a gap in one, but then they were going, but what about all the others, they couldn't get their head around it, and we've got to remember that, oh, probably high horse day, didn't I? So with a paddle move, a very nice, inspiring, thought provoking routine, thank you very much for the review, I love using a paddle move in a variety of different ways, I do too, Edward 2785, a guest, 3997, excellent review, thorough, thoughtful, and informative, as well as totally entertaining, brilliant, thanks for all you do, your friend in magic and mentalism, David, Dr. G, and the right hand paddle moves can be mystifying, beautiful to watch, and routines on the trailer are so smooth, yeah, they are, the trailer ones are incredible, and that's important, it's being beautiful to watch, you know, even if some people might know how a certain thing's done, if you make it beautiful, it kind of stops mattering, again, I think the Lincoln rings is a great example of that, if you do a good Lincoln ring routine, people just get lost in it, they stop even trying to work it out, they're just looking at the beauty of it, coin magic can be like that, you know, it's, you know, some people might know it's in the other hand, or it could be, but they can't work out how it could be, because it's so smooth, and lovely, and beautiful, and that aesthetic is what we forget sometimes, when we're looking at the power of an effect, that was from Pimple Wizard, Guest3997, I've been performing magic and mentalism for over 55 years, I thought your video demonstrating the TCC paddle piece was fun and entertaining, thanks so much David. Great review Steve, paddle tricks have come a long way since I was a kid, well they kind of have Robert, haven't they, but they haven't, that's the great thing about them, like the props and that, there's different things they can do, and the, you know, the cross routine with them jumping, that's a, that's a kind of relatively newish thing, relatively, you know, it's not new, but it's, but you know, in the history of magic it's new, and, but the thing I love about it, Robert, is that it's just all still around that same thing, which is great. I love your routine, thank you so much. The end, oh, over end display with a mirror version is excellent, stopped really half way to buy it, yeah nice. I should do affiliate links, shouldn't I? There's lots of lovely thing, yeah you got me at the end of the routine, great, beautiful, brilliant. Oh I like that, yes, it's due to stop motion, 751 the best part is that Chicago isn't even near the coast, and I was like, what's he on about? When have I mentioned that? And it was the, it was the smooth operator music, by Sade, that I put on there, purposely, cheesily. I have to say, you have a good name from Eric Faulkner, hi Eric. You've been too hard on yourself, your performance was terrific, yeah I was quite hard on myself, I thought, I was worried it was rubbish, but I'm always hard on myself, aren't I? That's just the way it is. Full of self-loathing and imposter syndrome. Right. Paddle's great, looks magical even if you're in the, yeah great, that's a good one. Hi David Blair, how you doing? Just saw this was on. Hi David, hope you're well. So, I think that's about it. 40 minutes, and we're going live, with Dave's teaching us, Dave, lovely Dave Croft, is a fountain of knowledge, that's what he's saying isn't it? Yeah. One of our members, he's going to teach Brother John Hammond trick tonight, which I looked at earlier, it's great, isn't it? That book's brilliant, forget how good these books are, you see, I'm going to go back to them, we're going to review stuff out of these, that's what we need to do, isn't it? Sometimes we don't know where to start, and I just opened that book earlier, looked at that trick, and then there was a trick, the sign card trick, Brother John Hammond's sign card, and then it said, oh this counts in this move, what's it called, the multiplying kings or something, or we looked at that, and then got into that, and you know you go down that rabbit hole, where I was thinking, I don't do this enough, I have to do this more, so yes, I think new year, less reviews, more answers to questions, more magic, more exploring, all of this, and I'm mounting the DVDs over there, and starting to revive some stuff, that we need to go back to, almost maybe like Ben has, but not as well as him, and I'll just be copying it, rather than developing it like he did, so thanks very much, do check out all Ben's stuff, on wowbound.com, he hasn't asked me to do this, no affiliation or anything like that, but do have a look at that, there's some great stuff, and of course his books, on Vanishing Machinations, and Symmetry Parity, and the Chimera deck, and what's coming out, oh he talked about it, it was exclusive with me, he talked about his book, on Bend It Like Geller, which is a metal bending book, and Uri's been part of that as well, so I'm so excited about it, I haven't even started my beer, that's a good sign David, oh you were talking about beer, I can't wait to have my little beer tonight, I'll get all excited, because I don't drink much at the moment, right, I might not be saying that in the morning, so thanks very much, oh I always forget to say this, below every video, actually some of them it's not complete, so below this one there is, I've got two free courses, the more advanced course on the spread code, which is the best move in the world, and it's not like a rubbish one that's free, it's my take on the spread code, it'll be no good if you're a complete beginner, but I do have an introduction to card magic course, down there as well, that do have a look at, and feel free to send that link to anyone, that's for anyone, alright it's an introduction, it's free basic tricks, that you get in beginners magic books, but just subtleties on them, to make them a little bit more magical, so if people get a feel for it, they can go on, and for people that are worried about exposure, for me if you sit down, and spend a long time learning something, nobody wants to do that anymore, nobody's got the time, that's more commitment, than pressing a button, and spending seven quid on a secret, so I'm really proud of it, so have a look at those courses, feel free to share them around, and that'll be lovely, right let's get cracking, they're already on it, alright everybody listen, just have the most lovely evening, or morning or wherever you are, it's been a real pleasure, thank you so much for watching me, it is so appreciated, that you spend time watching this, and if you know anybody, that might enjoy it on the Thursdays, or just the recorded stuff that I do, please do tell them, that's the best way this can work, and we're going to the new year, don't know what word to say there, I was going to say firing, but that doesn't work, smiling, that's not what I meant either, but we'll do that as well, right take care everyone, have a great one, after this go and check out online magic.co, if you like this you'll love that, take care, see you later, bye.