Danny Goldsmith, Jason England, Practice for Mental Health

Fashionably late, aren't I? Fashionably late. About a minute late. Sorry about that. Got the timer on. Welcome to Real Magic Review. My name is Steve Faulkner. Hello. How are you? Please like and subscribe. Please have a look at Card Magic Course. That's my online Card Magic Course and it's very, very good. You've got guest lecturers now regularly for your membership. Go and have a look at that. If you get the gold membership, you can join in with the lectures, which are every week. I do these every week, of course, and then Peter Wardell's lecturing for us tonight. Whoa. Hang on. That panicked me then. My whole screen went black. Yes, we are. That's good. Peter Wardell's lecturing tonight. Excited about that because he's the reason I'm here and doing all this. He's an incredibly good lecturer and magician. That will be up on the site afterwards for all to see as well. That'll be fun. I'm just going to have a chat. There's not many comments because I only did one video this week, one the week before. I've been doing lots of administratory things, which isn't a word, I'm very aware. Isn't it? I don't know. I'm exhausted, actually, for many reasons. One of which, and it's not a complaint, it's fine. I'm not sleeping very well. The other which is my mental health has been a bit all over the place, which I'll talk about in a minute. I'm all right. It's all good. I just noticed that things were dropping a bit. I've got to keep an eye on that. What was really good for my health in all ways was that I did a lecture for IBM Ring 55 in Phoenix, the magic club there. CJ, who is a member of the course and a friend, is part of that club. It was great. It wasn't great. Well, actually, it was great, but I didn't think it was going to be great, is that I had to do it at three o'clock in the morning. I mentioned it on the last video, but when I said I'd do it, I'd have said I'd do it anyway, but I looked at the time difference and went, oh, three o'clock would be nice, and then realized it was three o'clock in the morning. I realized the only time I've ever been up at three o'clock in the morning is when I haven't been of sound mind because I've been partying, so I haven't been sober or I've been going on holiday. Any other time, it hasn't happened. It was a really strange experience. I came over to my office. I did the lecture from three o'clock in the morning until five. They're really lovely people. I was a bit nervous because it was Curtis. One of the first ever Coin Magic DVDs I got was a Curtis Cam DVD, which was way too difficult for me at the time. I felt a bit nervous, but it was lovely to do. Weirdly enough, I felt okay. I didn't feel tired in it at all. The next day, I was kind of okay. It kind of hit me the next day, but that was really fun. Thanks, guys, for that. In Phoenix, you were really, really delightful. This time, I taught my cups and balls about getting all confused and lost halfway through it. I actually practiced teaching it, so that's that. Not loads of comments. The only thing I've done since the last time is the Danny Goldsmith one and the Jason Ingram one, and both of which have been really good for me, actually. I went through a bit of a lull. Everything I was learning was learning just to review or learning for my show, which was fine. I really enjoyed doing that, but it's a different thing. I realized that for a long time, I hadn't just sat and kind of just had a practice and just kind of got the cards out and just not been like, oh, I've got to learn this for this reason and just played. Actually, the Jason Ingram watching that got me back into that state of mind a little bit because the stuff he was teaching was really chimed with me, and it was the stuff I really wanted to do. It was also building on what I knew already, so it was a nice build to what I was already doing and an improvement in what I was already doing. But I realized something that I was, and again with Danny's stuff, the coin stuff, that I was approaching my practice in this kind of frantic way, partly again because I was learning for a reason. There was that thing in my head that there was a time connected. I've got to learn this by then, so my practice had a kind of... Have you ever done that when you've got to learn a trick for intellectual, something like that, or to show someone, or maybe you've got a magic club and you're showing this club and you've got that thing of learning, and it's great because it makes you do it, but it's not a very mindful place to be sometimes. Sometimes it is, and I decided over the last couple of days, I've been feeling quite... I get this thing when I've been working quite hard in the daytime that I can't switch off at night, and I can't even watch TV and stuff. I feel really anxious. It's a form of anxiety, I'm sure, and it's not overwhelming, but it's not nice, and all this week I've been getting home after being at the office, and I've had this kind of frantic thing of having to get stuff done, and I've got home, and I've had the kids, and I've got their dinner ready, and sat down to chill out, and I just haven't been able to do it, and whatever I do, it hasn't... I've just been kind of really on edge. In the last couple of nights, I just kind of got the cards out and the coins, and I didn't think it was going to work. I didn't want that frantic kind of thing, but actually I went the other way, and just decided to do a mindful practice, and it's a really good thing to do, because I've talked to a few people about this. Sometimes practice can be mindful and relaxing, but often it can be a different thing, which again isn't bad, but might not be what you need at the time. So I was breaking down things like my ladder cut, and I may have discussed this before, but so usually I'll kind of, I don't know, I'll kind of do a kind of messy up the ladder cut, and I'll be there, and I'll be frantically trying to get my speed up, and all that, and great, but I realized actually that that form of practice wasn't really helping me a great deal. So I decided again, because part of this was because I was learning the stuff off the Jason England bit, which was, you know, if you're going to use a breather, that thing of not just, you know, cutting, and then cutting to it, of actually, you know, cutting and zarrowing, so, not zarrowing, sorry, up the ladder, and so you do it up the ladder cut, and then you do that, and it's a little bit of a nicer way of getting into it. My up the ladder, if I'm out of practice with it, it's a little bit, can be a bit messy, so I really broke it down in a really slow way, so I was kind of really, well first of all looking at what I was trying to make it look like, which is a set of running cuts, and really looking at the slowness of sort of coming in, and what I realized was that there was a kind of messiness here, so I realized if I put more weight in the bottom of my thumb, it would strip easier, and it actually, this kind of, it's a very hard thing to do, but trying to neaten it up in that really slow way, was really beneficial, not only for me improving the move, but also for my state of mind, and I realized that after a while, this was kind of getting me into a state that I really wanted to get into, that nothing, the usual things weren't getting me into, hot bath, you know, normal practice, it seemed like and getting into it in that frantic way, and also you know, watching tv, which can be a lovely thing to do, you know, so none of that was working, and this was the thing that got me into it, and actually Danny's thing, I decided not to watch it all, I've got to review this and take notes, so I kind of watched it slowly, watched a bit, went back to it, went back to it, as I did with Jason's, and then taking that move, and the move that I was learning on that, which is, which I still can't do, which is the finger fling, so I'm just moving over here, now I'm kind of getting a coin, and instead of just doing that thing of, you know, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, try and get it, which does work, actually looking at, sorry, looking at what I was, what I was trying to do, where the pressure was going to go, and actually, you know, I still can't do it, but try and look, kind of working it in, in a way that I was looking at my hand, getting it into position, it wasn't working, look what was happening, really breaking it down, and not trying to, to kind of do that thing, and some of you will know what I'm talking about, I'm sure a lot of people do, but some of you don't, and with our coin vanishes, you know, doing a thing of, you know, how can we, how can we make our coin vanishes nice and, nice and slow, and break them down in a way, so it's a bit flashy, but you know what I mean, and that, that I found really, really helpful too, and I thought I'd share that, because I'm sure I'm not the only one that would benefit from a mindful practice, and I think that mindfulness is something that is so overused, it's a word that is almost a bit like, here we go, and I think to put that into a really, really beneficial thing, so which I thought, yeah, and again, both things, luckily the Jason England Masterclass and Danny Goldsmith's work, and the way Danny presents it as well, puts you into that kind of state of mind, for me it's a very pleasant thing, just to hear him talk, and talk about the stuff he talks about, it puts me into that state of mind, and actually reminds me to kind of step back, and go, what am I, what am I actually trying to achieve here, and, and build it up from there, and don't rush, you know, just let, let it happen, which I think is really nice, Spencer says, and hi Gary, hi Mattia, Mattia, yes, isn't it, Chris, nice to see you mate, and Manish, so for the finger fling, my thumb happens to have a stiff joint, and can't bend, oh that's a shame, I found a way of finger fling, keeping the thumb knuckle straight the entire time, that's a really important thing, isn't it, that thing of adapting a move, and not feeling like you're constrained by the way the original person does it, and no, you know, I'm sure, I've, you know, so much, when I've kind of read a move in a book, your fingers must be in this position, and you just can't do it, then you change one little thing, and actually relax, and do it as you would do it, and it starts to work, and I think there's nothing wrong at all with the, you know, things to the way you do it, and that's a, that's great that you've got that sorted Spencer, I bought methyls for the finger fling, harder than I thought, it's really hard, isn't it, I, and I love, I love that thing of, I now love that thing of not being able to do something, because I have faith that it will come, and that's one of the ones actually that I sat there, and kind of went, I can't, I mean, I could, the fact that's happening now, I'm really happy with, I just couldn't, I, it was, I mean, a good way to do it, showing it in my left hand, right, so it was like, let me, nothing, you know, that's what it's like, and it, it was like that for so long, and I love having the faith that you just keep doing it, and then it is, for me, that's real magic, that finger, you know, your, your neurons have kind of started linking and creating neural pathways in your brain, and all of a sudden, your fingers start doing something that they weren't doing before, and something starts happening, it's, it's really miraculous, I think it's a, it's a profound thing, Michal, how you doing, and I've really enjoyed that, love that feeling of picking something up and going, I'm nowhere near it, just nothing, nothing is happening, and then getting that little glimmer when you see them, and you go, oh, and it is something you can watch in front of the TV, I've discovered Ted Lasso, which is just, that, that really got me into a nice state of mind last night, actually, that, that helped a great deal, but Ted Lasso is such a lovely show. Do you do any coin magic from Spencer at your gigs with a silver dollar? I don't, I do half dollars, exactly because I'm used to them, I'm working on some silver dollar stuff at the moment, and it's something I'm going to put in a free fly, things like that, it's just, I'm so used to using half dollars that when I take one of these on stage, I just feel a bit like, oh, it's all a bit weird, but I want to, because they're just nice and big, and I've got my lovely Schoolcraft dollars as well, which don't actually leave my house at the moment, because I'm too scared to lose them, but I do half dollar stuff, so I do coin under watch on stage, like some muscle pass stuff, coin on the hand, the usual stuff, the sort of Apollo Robbins, that I saw for him first, do, which is just so lovely, and then saw James Brown do it, so it's doing upwards that I found tricky, mainly because I couldn't, at least you're getting it, mine was that I couldn't catch a coin, mine was that I couldn't, it can't go up, these are heavy as well, but oh, there you go, so let's get in there, so I'm late, watching your friend performing nerd on Twitch, oh yeah, yeah, he's great, he's still doing his Twitch, he's brilliant, I'm having a mental block, you know what I want to say, is Tom, yeah, Tom is brilliant, Tom Crosby is great, funnily enough, I was just doing it, I'm currently working through Refractor, which is a great thing, an online Rubik's Cube thing you can get, I'll tell you where it is actually, because a lot of you are interested in your Rubik's Cube stuff, it is rubikscubemagician.co.uk, check that out, it's great, I'm going to be reviewing it soon, show off, yeah, I can't believe I got that, I'm well happy with that, isn't it good, isn't Ted Lasso good Spencer, I was crying watching it last night, in laughter and with emotion, it was so moving, he is funny, he's great Tom, very, very good entertainer, right, so that's my little waffle, any questions, now I'm going to go and get prepared for Peter Wardell, who's coming on and I'm really excited to have guests on, I've had a couple of guests, but Stan Allen and Andy Glabwin has come on to my Zoom sessions, but it's going to be a more regular thing now, and so I'm excited about that, Vinita Gu said he's going to come on and I'm sure it'll be a kind of monthly thing, which means I can just sit back and chill out, which is lovely, right, so listen, any questions, put them in the comments after this, on the live comments, I bet you can't fling upwards three times in a row, you have to, I'm going to do it once now, I've got that thing of overthinking it, it's like the minute I think about it, I'm done, oh there's another one, there you go, three, I'm flinging very well, there you go, because I'm kind of doing that and you've got to try and keep, but there you go, learnt that off that Danny Goldsmith, see I do, when I review things, pressure's building, I get right into them and actually learn a great deal, that's why I love this, but it can be, people have been sort of getting in touch saying, you know, have you reviewed my thing yet, and it takes an awful lot of time, it really, really does, to sort of get into it and feel, you know, how to do a magic trick and be able to review it properly, so that was more diagonal than, oh shut up, I can't, oh no, you're right, oh look, but yeah, I can't, there you go, look, there's one, three in a row, two, I'm giving it a little bit of a, oh three, look at that, boom, there you go, I'm just like Danny Goldsmith, that's what I am, with that finger flinging, he's probably watching it, he'll watch this and go, that was awful, can't wait for you to get Silver Smith off illusionist, yeah, I'm gonna get it, I'm gonna get it, because I'm gonna learn all of it, um, all right, I'm on it, I'm on it, I'm missing that three, this is the right waffle now, it's like a really beautiful free calling routine he does on homage, which I still can't do, I shouldn't even try it, which is there, he's got that, that's all I'm doing, I'm not gonna do any more, um, which was flashy, check out homage, because I still think that's just amazing, they're all brilliant, but I think, hey magic calling, nice to see you, slightly cheap there, but it'll do, I bet you, I bet you're pausing it and kind of, you got a spirit level to see if it that was upwards, that was, yeah, um, was it, did it look all right, it's that last one, he's got this, um, he's got, yeah, I mean, it's a beautiful routine, I'm glad I got that first two bits, these are my cheaper coins, except for that one, that's, that's off of Copen coins, um, yeah, I don't know what I'm doing now, there, and then there's a, no, there's, I'm not going to try the rest of it, because I can't do, I can't do coin rolls with these, because I'm used to doing it in half dollars, there you go, there you go, that was terrible, that pinky still thingy, yeah, that's good, I'm halfway through that, I'll work on that, maybe that's the accountability thing, I'll work on that and try and do it on the, um, on the, on the, on here, if I can, if I can do that free coin routine, that'd be amazing, because I don't think I'll be able to nail it, I can't get that last bit, but check that out, uh, if you want to learn that, because I think it's a lovely goal to be able to learn that, it's a long-term one for me, that's Danny Goldsmith's homage, homage, homage, that's one of the harder routines, absolutely, it's good to have that clicking along in the background, all right, just want to stay here really, we've got 40 minutes, any step work is pretty tough, yeah, it is, isn't it, um, right, because listen, you, no, nobody wants to hear me bang on, uh, to put that in the Zoom chat later, yes, I will, I'll show you, I'll show you it, but actually, uh, I'm not doing much tonight, because Pete's coming, that's gonna be lovely, so, uh, listen, have a great one, please like and subscribe, and please share this, and I don't mean put it all over social media, because I know that isn't going to suit a lot of people, but it's, um, it's, it's growing slowly at the moment, and loads of people tell me how much they love the show, you know, like Chris Kenner has said lovely things about it, so there must be something to it, but a lot of people don't know about it still, I kind of meet a lot of magicians and say, oh, I do this channel now, look, oh, I didn't know about that, so, um, and you know, you should be making more videos for social, but at the moment, I'd never get to the end of the day and have done everything, I just always run out of time, even by coming nine, ten o'clock at night sometimes, and then it's Ted Lasso time, and turn my brain off, so if you could help, that'd be great, um, I'm sat waiting in the Zoom, so I have nothing to do, so waffle away, uh, remind you to perform that, yeah, how are you and yourself? I'm good, I'm good, um, yeah, so I was saying that this, yeah, I was going to talk about that a little bit, well, I did, I suppose, but yeah, I've been, had this kind of weird anxious things, um, it just happens sometimes, I think, sometimes trying to get everything done, and being present for the kids, and then it's a bad idea for me to kind of work late, and it doesn't put me in a good state of mind, and that's what I've been doing, and part of that is, you know, getting, saying yes to too many reviews, and trying to do too much, um, so I've nearly got through it all now, so I can do some fresh stuff soon, so thanks, Chris, that's lovely of you to ask, uh, but everything is good, and I'm very lucky to be on things like this, and for you to come watch the show, so thanks a lot, everybody, uh, Chris, I'll see you in a minute, in the think, uh, take care, see you later, and check out cardmagiccourse.com, you might as well, thanks, Chris.