The Magician’s Podcast Network Review

Hi, welcome to Real Magic Review. My name is Steve Faulkner and today I'll be reviewing The Magician's Podcast Network with Richard Young and many others. Before I do this, can you please like and subscribe and check out OnlineMagic.co, my membership site which runs this whole thing. Without that there is no this, and if you love this you will love that. Learn from a pro, OnlineMagic.co 900 videos. We had a great session last night with Ronnie McGee and Noel Qualter discussing creativity and coming up with loads of examples how they get into that place of creating magic which so many of us struggle with. So that's just one of the 150 live sessions plus loads of tutorials. Brand new Rubber Band Magic course I've just uploaded with loads of stuff on there. Rubber Band 101, Volume 1 just up on the site. All of that for your £9.99 a month. Ridiculous. Have a look at it. OnlineMagic.co. So I was really excited when Richard Young was going to start his podcast again. It's the only magic podcast, The Magician's Podcast, his previous project and kind of ongoing project I suppose, where I listen to every single episode. I found it so enlightening. Richard's a phenomenal host. He's not too sleazy. He's not trying to come off as being too funny all the time. Very natural and because of that there was this lovely kind of fairy tale story where the more the podcast went on the more difficult... difficult's the wrong word. Famous is the wrong word of meaning difficult to get hold of people to interview. You know what I mean. Basically not belittling the people that were at the beginning of the podcast but like everyone when it got traction more people were up for being involved that maybe wouldn't have been at the beginning. That's what I'm trying to say. What a rubbish way of saying it Steve. Very rubbish indeed. You know what I mean. Basically culminated in him interviewing Homily Y Chris Kenner and then amazingly David Copperfield which was this sort of 100th episode which was so such a great journey. It felt like you were kind of with him on this whole thing which started out like any podcast is a kind of bit of an experiment or a bit of a project and then sort of ruled his life in a good and a bad way I'm sure. So took a break after that well deserved. How do you follow that? And as Alan Hudson his co-host in a lot of this and in some of the previous podcasts and him discuss on the sort of introductory episode how do you follow interviewing Copperfield? Well now my feeling is you follow it quite easily because for me an interesting podcast isn't only on the level of celebrity of the guest you have. And what I mean by that is on the previous podcast there were magicians I didn't really know much about and it was easy to go I don't really want to yeah I'll go on to the people I know about I want to know about them and actually those were the things I found so inspiring and it opened the doors and introduced me to new magicians and new ways of thinking. So off the bat I would say if you do go back and watch all the sort of legacy episodes so to speak the hundred episodes of the magician's podcast do not just look for those magicians you already like to reinforce what you already know you know be open-minded and watch everything and I'd say that actually with with all podcasts. So that's why I kind of didn't think oh right where are you going to go after that I was like yeah great bring it on you know the the the magicians you interview will all be good for me. And then it was this whole network thing so so what you get with this the what's going on which is Alan Hudson and Richard talking about what's going on in magic via interviews and you'll know it says a cut there because there's loads to remember here and I can't remember it so I've got notes right there what I could do it about it looks like I can't. So started off with the Derren Brown interview and then Cat Hudson Marvin Burglass I'm just going to read them the Marvin Burglass one was the one I listened to which was great actually and Marvin becoming the you know recently becoming the president of the magic circle was really lovely and there's a really lovely bonus at the end with a very short interview with David Burglass um have been 98 I believe 97 98 uh Jack Rhoades and Michael J Fitch a fix Fitch Fitch then as well Christian Grace all those people haven't heard all of them but I will say whenever you've got Richard and or Alan interviewing someone it's going to be good there's this kind of follows the similar vein and they are saying they want it to be more chatty which I'd go with more than kind of you know these sort of written interviews that are very kind of static they're chats with people in the magic world um which is a winner for me so that's a no-brainer great and that's kind of similar to what what we had before. Then through the magic of television is another podcast you get if you get all these podcasts uh podcasts with this with Alex McAleer and this is where Alex will sit with someone else looking back over a tv show or something that from the past um well it will be a tv show that's why it's called the magic of television so it's not always something from the past it is something from the past something that's been watched and they watch someone that was involved with that or involved in that world and discuss it which I think is great because then you can go back and re-watch it it's almost like a director's commentary ish kind of thing and I really enjoyed it I listened to the uh the one with John Archer where they discussed the early well the first episode of Foolers and all the people in that series and what happened to them that was great because I was there watching it at the time uh and there's Looch talking about Derren Brown's mind control loads of other stuff I'm not going to read them all out I'll be here all day. I just cannot remember I think I can but when it comes to lists of things to remember my ADHD brain is nonsense. So uh Neb and Harry it's called Face the Magic. I keep wanting to say Face the Music. The episode I listened to was where Neb and Harry both go and see a psychic each and report back so they go in as a punter they don't tell them they're magicians and they get reading and come back and talk about it and I think this is this was really interesting because what I was expecting was them to go and go oh what a load of nonsense um you know regardless of what you think about it or not with that kind of confirmation bias of let's prove this is all nonsense but actually they were discussing how they really did want to go in with an open mind you know understanding that it might help someone so it wasn't completely dismissive it was right let's really go for this let's go in as a punter and be kind which they were they didn't like take the piss or anything which I'm really glad of it could have really easily been a kind of cheap dig and then they come back and discuss the results what I like about it and quite a lot of it and go with me on this there is a reason for this it's quite sweary and and maybe maybe a little bit too I don't know I've got a potty mouth but but I think what's happened is I think I'm right let's kind of not make this as clean cut as it as a lot of magic is and I do think too much magic is a little bit kind of squeaky clean so I really like the fact that they're kind of relaxing a bit and not being too too kind of careful with that I just like watching the um the live launch of the piff book last night I liked that it was a bit sweary it's not that I think swearing is really cool can be uh but it's just that I think actually we need to stop being so squeaky clean a little bit like any other medium uh and just kind of relax a bit then there's a special episode now the episode I listened to was the and there is a free thing you get when you subscribe by the way which is very cool the episode I listened to was the Edinburgh Fringe one it's really long right and I don't say that in a bad way so you do get a lot this isn't stuff that's been kind of trotted out and that was going and interviewing magicians loads of different magicians uh Chris Dugdale uh Ben Hart loads of others not gonna mention them all loads of them and not just two or three as well of what that Edinburgh experience is about and again even though I don't do Edinburgh anymore it was good to hear about the experience and actually what they're saying is transferable to other scenarios you know what's it like running a long show day after day after day what happens from beginning to end you know what does it feel like to do what about the failures all that stuff really important for us magicians to know as performers in any kind of scenario and the other special episode that is there is the audio of the Derren Brown interview that was the big launch of this which the launch of launch of the notes from a fellow traveler book which you get as a video a really nicely produced video when you subscribe to this podcast so you get all of that these regular shows loads and loads of stuff and you get a video really nicely done video of the Derren Brown interview that Richard did at the Magic Circle the launch of the phenomenal book I've not reviewed it yet I don't know if I will but I'm reading it I'm definitely doing that um but I will talk about it but it's it's just stunning and that interview is just brilliant Derren is someone who's always worth listening to and is very honest and candid and will help you in your performance as is reading that book at the moment I read the first 20 pages of that book went out and did a show that day because I was sitting in the car reading it and stuff started to change so I really recommend that okay what's the catch you gotta pay for it that's the catch paying for a podcast blimey yes you've got to pay for the podcast and we're so used to getting podcasts for free now that for some people is of course going to be an issue because we've got all the other stuff for free we got the magician's podcast 300 episodes podcast for free uh and it was great so now we've got to pay for it you what £13.99 a month or £12.99 um I'm not gonna double check it can't be bothered there's only a quid in it uh a month why well why is because well the first thing is you get four different podcast episodes but also the money is apparently going back into the production of this it's never going to be a big money maker these things cost money as you can see from the Derren Brown video it's all really nicely produced and the audio is really nicely produced there's a lot more to this it feels like watching something for want of a better word but well the the original podcast was professional anyway but it's just there's more production in it that's what I'll say uh it feels like so you know when you want to listen to a BBC podcast they chuckle that budget as it and it kind of feels like a kind of serialized kind of tv thing uh with the top and tailing and all that and the audio and it really does feel like that they've put a lot of time into this and of course they're paying people like Nev and Harry to go off and see Psychic so with a solo podcast it's always a win-win you get views and the people come on and it's a win for them but when there's more the the amount of work that this is taking I think to expect all these different people to get involved you can't expect everybody to keep doing stuff for free just for a podcast that might actually not be theirs and when it comes to special episodes I'm sure there's things in the future where they might have guest hosts people coming on doing different things that they will pay so you're getting something a lot more solid for want of a better word and I'll keep saying for one of a better word because I'm not very good at words sometimes especially today not very good at words today but you're getting a lot and I think you know in compared you know we always say you know all the tricks you buy and don't use there is some serious learning but also enjoyment in this that's really important you know when we list a podcast we don't need to learn loads of stuff and find out things that can be very dry we want it to be entertaining Richard, Alan, Neb, Harry, Alex they're good interviewers they're good presences for audio and I really enjoyed what I saw and I wanted more so loads more to say I've said too much many words probably could have done that in about three minutes sorry about that but the point is I think it's really good it is a commitment it is an investment um but you know you don't have to sign up for years do you and you do get that Darren Brown video uh for your money and I think you know for for the things we have to pay for on a month-to-month basis I think this is a good one to consider if you take your magic seriously and you want an insight and not just the stuff we all hear about you know when you get the magic we've got a magic set which I didn't actually um but actually something a little bit it's a bit more of a deep dive and a bit more niche you know there's lots of niche things that you can sort of dive into here I said do I dive twice there you go right thanks very much uh do use the links below this is available all over the place spotify apple podcast everything you just go in there have a look and it will take you through the process to subscribe and um any questions at all do ask me comment below and I will answer them on a live session when I do them on Thursdays at five quite a lot of Thursdays I can't make it so when you like and subscribe which you should do hit the little bell icon and uh and you'll get all the notifications right that's the magician's podcast network have a look at it and uh and then go and have a look at onlinemagic.co cheers