This Book Changed How I See My Magic – Stairway by Markobi

Hello, welcome to Real Magic Review. My name is Steve Fulner and in a minute you are going to find out why it took me so long to review Stairway by Marco. [Music] Before we do this, can I have a few seconds of your time? It will be quick honestly, but it's very, very important. One, like and subscribe if you like it and you want to subscribe to it. There are so many videos and people I follow on YouTube and after months I realize that I don't even subscribe to them. It's just because I search them and find their stuff. So, please hit the subscribe button. It makes all the difference and then you'll be notified of new videos. And if you want to help the channel or help me specifically, you can do a few things. One of them is sign up to onlinemagic.co. That is a separate thing. That's not like a donation thing. That is something I launched over 10 years ago. over 900 videos, special guests, uh coming on to live sessions, other live sessions which I host every week that are all uploaded. There are over 200 of those now. So, it's a phenomenal place to learn. It's hard for me to say because it's mine and of course I'm biased. Um but I think objectively it's something that people love and you can read the reviews. So, online.co. At the moment, it's $9.99 a month and you get so much for your money. And you can follow the podcast, Steve Falton's Magic Show. Please also subscribe to that and share this and do all that good stuff. Follow me on Instagram @ Steve Fulner as well and all those things will really really help. I do this all on my own. It's not a sub story. I love it. Other than the podcast, I'll get a bit of help editing. Uh but it takes me a long time. So all those things will just make sure that they get into people's inboxes and people importantly that would enjoy them. So tell people that'll be great. Right, let's get on with this review. First of all, and this is relevant to the review. It's not just a self-indulgent waffle. There might be a bit of that, but this has taken me a long time to review, and it has been a torturous process for me for various reasons. Now, there's the usual stuff, procrastination, self-doubt, uh the chaos in my head, trying to formulate all these ideas, things I want to say into something remotely understandable. Um, and that's stuff that I deal with when I whenever I review anything. And of course that this is a book that has been quite powerful for me. So that made it even more important. And the more important the thing is, the more it means, the more it becomes this kind of rock I have to move out the way. It becomes heavier and heavier and it becomes ridiculously difficult because it's not difficult. It's something something that actually now I'm here I find fairly easy but it becomes a big issue in my head. This is relevant. bear with me. And then I thought something else might be going on because that's always the case with books. I find books incredibly challenging to review. I think subconsciously what was happening was when I first started reading this, I was reading it for review. I thought, "Yes, I'm interested in it, but it's going to be about Marco's Frisen act and um yeah, I'm interested in that. So, I'll bang through it, review it." And I found that difficult. I kind of I was reading it, loving it, but I couldn't just bang through it. I wasn't I was kind of hooked when I was reading it, but then I'd leave it for a couple of weeks and come back to it and I couldn't really work out why. And then I'd start again and then get a certain way through and then I'd start again. And I realized what was happening on the last kind of session of that, which was probably about a month ago when I sat down with it and said, "Look, come on, Steve. You know, you love this book. What is it?" And I think what was happening subconsciously is, and this does sound a bit kind of woo woo, I suppose, but is that when I read a book to review after I've read it, it goes, it's I've got another book to review. And I I'm always a bit sad about that. It's kind to me, Steve, this is something you need to know. This is something you need not just to read to review, but is so poignant and important for you at this time that you can't just read it to review, make notes, and do it. You need to sit with it. You need to go back to it. You need to learn it. And you need to connect with it. And in the last month, that's happened a lot. Now, because of that, it became even harder to review because it was even more important to me. And then I was like, how can I get that over in a quick review? And the answer is I can't. I won't do it justice, but all that stuff I've just been talking about also kind of connects with the book itself. And we will go into that in a second. I promise. I say that and don't go into it. And I can't make that promise because I might not, but I will cuz you see I've actually made Yeah. And I know loads of people do that. They go, I'm going to look at my notes now. But that's unusual even for me. And I know a couple of excuse me, a couple of those pages are blank and it looks like I've just held up a load of blank paper. Right, get that out of the way. Oh god, got upset me. No, don't throw it over there. You might have to refer to it, idiot. Okay, first of all, what is this? So this is Marob's book now on Marobi. Marco B Mark beta bitar magician that won 2022 card magic in fism and this is his journey now the first half of this book is a as he says it's kind of a academic and spiritual journey which is so accurate and a a sort of dissection of his process and then the second chunk of the book is his act the act itself and a diss section of that and an analysis of that. First of all, we've got the the forward by Leonard Green which is very brief. We've got a forward by Dan Danny Deortis who was a great inspiration of his and friend. Um and we've got forward by Jeanjac and they all say very different things. So Leonard Greens is just a very brief thing saying you know Marobi is great and Marobi has a is inspired by Leonard Green unashamedly. Um and Danny Dort is then talks about that. He talks about the thing that what Marobi does is he takes that inspiration. He takes Tamar's Danny Dort Leonard Green and the hardest thing is then to not copy or mimic. It's to it's to you see the sort of essence of those performers in Mal Kobe. But then what has to be done to to bring your personality into it because the easy way is to just fall back on what you know works. You know that stuff works, right? And people that don't know who those people are and there's a lot of them won't know that. So you've kind of got that to work with and it's an easy way out and many of us have taken it myself included in the past. But then how do you sort of take that remain keep that essence and then bring your personality into it and and your idiosyncrasies your uniqueness and that book is also about this very much. Then Jean Jackson talks about his his work ethic but not only his work ethic his deep analysis and his deep and his self-doubt and his humanity and how that also comes into the work. Now they in a different context could be seen as just something to write that sounds very clever and academic or whatever. In this case, it's a real reflection of the book and the man himself themselves himself book and man. Anyway, so the book is like a funnel, right? The funnel being you get the chaos as and this is why I link it to my reviewing of the book. The chaos being I've got all this stuff in my head. How on earth do I begin to formulate that? Especially with ADHD. And you know, even if you haven't got ADHD, it's like we creative people create people that do magic, people that try and form things out of an abundance of raw materials, which we all have, and are, you know, rapidly growing. Excuse me again, the Windy Pops. We've got all that stuff. How do we get that? And and I know a lot of people worry about this stuff because I have many discussions with them at all levels. And what Marco does, he starts at the beginning. It's he's got a lovely introduction. Now, if you read that introduction, it's quite esoteric. It's quite poetic. And you may be mistaken into thinking we're going to go into that kind of tamaris territory, magic rainbow territory, which isn't a bad thing of of the very poetic sort of flowery writing that some of us love, some of us struggle with. But straight away after that, we've got, and it's a great introduction, by the way. We get straight into the the practicalities. And this is where I felt like I met my kindred spirit. I love the details. Right? you're going to need a notebook. But yes, okay, but then what do we do with it? And he then goes deep into different ways of approaching that. And what he's talking about, it looks like he's just talking about notebooks and writing notes. But no, because as many of us know, if we're trying to create ideas, we can either not write stuff enough, we think we're going to remember it, or we just overwrite. And he gives us many tips and ideas for that. Now, on this, the tips and ideas, as he says, are his. They're not like prescriptive. You must do it my way. But I will say I have taken a lot of those things on board. But it's not like I do it this way, you've got to do it that way. But what it does do, it gives us a lot to work with and a lot of different approaches we can take in all aspects of this book. Not just a note takingaking. That's just kind of an example. But what we're talking about is is starting to capture the chaos for me. This is what I took from it. It's it's I know so much. There's so much going on around me. Now what he says is you kind of expand that window because yes we know so much magic but how do we almost kind of put that aside for a bit and then start looking out into the outer world. Now we've all heard people say you know you've got to uh look outside of magic but what does that mean? Is it just reading a book that is a bit like magic and not like magic? Is it just reading personal development but books? But he now takes it to an extreme. And again here where we where we go from the kind of practical to the more well as he says one of the chapters connecting dreams to reality. It's it's looking around us looking at the things we may take for granted in a mindful way and kind of mining them. Not in a sort of what can I get out of this but just being open to it and then trying to find or or being open to ideas from different things. He even mentions reading a book on structure of bridges. Now you read that and go why would I do that? But then he writes and you go well of course I would because there are ways of looking at that that aren't just I'm looking at a book about bridges. The way in which we need to be open to finding inspiration in places we wouldn't expect them to be which is that but it's also in trying different approaches trying different ways. He he mentions this uh what's it called? Something abu abstract madness or something like that. I do apologize. It's not that, but it's that the the thing of trying things a different way that seems so outlandish and and pointless, but may contain something you won't expect that can then give you the inspiration of an idea to take into your show. Now, this might seem like an awful lot for those of you going, I just want to do some magic tricks at a gig. And that's fine, but you may not be that way forever. You may want to may want to expand your horizons and you may want to perform whether it's for family and friends in a show and and give something that isn't just the magic tricks themselves but a part of you. There is a raising of awareness in this book and there are also the practical tips. So as examples, there's something he said that just by saying it and just by confirming what I was going through, it then helped me to to move forward with it and accept it. And what what I mean by that is so so in coaching and I'm also a a business coach qualified business coach what happens in coaching a lot of times coaching not mentoring not the prescriptive you do this but the kind of more person- centered stuff is that someone will become aware of what's going on within them or become aware of why something might be happening and when that happens just that awareness of oh yeah I didn't realize I was feeling that way that is enough to start the process of moving forward, developing or overcoming obstacles or whatever. And Marobi says in the part of this book, he says, you know, when he's talking about stagnation, I think it is when you just you're stagnated and you you can't move forward with either your practice or your performance or writing the show or whatever. And he says what I provide now is, you know, not concrete ideas, but just an acknowledgement. I think it says something like sympathy or it's it's not that, but it's he just said it's the acknowledgement. It's just kind of um giving you some solace. That's what I think it is. Um and it's just, you know, I'm just saying I'm with you. Now, that feels like it's kind of just saying, "Oh, I'm just saying that this happens." But that in itself is can cause huge moves forward. And with me, the example was I and it opened up a whole realization that when I practice a routine, so let's say my Lincoln rings act, okay, I practice it. practice it and I'm so loving the kind of learning journey, the kind of overcoming of obstacles. I can I'm can nearly do that move and now I can do it. It's when I can do all the moves that's when I stagnate. That's when I kind of switch off and that's when I start practicing other things. And he just said this thing which was it it's the feeling of churning air and I just went that's it. It's a feeling it's feeling that I'm not getting anywhere now. I've got to where I want to go and I'm just kind of repeating it. It's kind like I know how to drive now so I don't have to drive every day for two hours. It's it's but you but that's the illusion and he then gives you concrete ways of kind of looking at this and to understand that that is such an important thing that you will stagnate. You will get boredom for some of us boredom is anxiety but you have to find ways of getting through that because it's only at the next level where you'll achieve excellence. Now that to some of you will be like what's he talking about? To me, it was like someone was looking inside my soul and going, you need to sort this out if you're ever going to get anywhere with this actually. It's going to you have to get through that. And since then, it's changed a lot of my practice and a lot of my approach. So, that's just raising awareness and it's a very important thing if you're developing in magic in life in everything. The other parts of this are the concrete tips that he gives. So for example, talking about stagnation, these are antidotes to stagnation. Try this, try this. This is a list how you can check your authenticity. The examples I've just given you, there are so many of them. And some of them for me have been very profound. It's like everything that that I think is just me. It's just me that feels that way. He has not only mentioned it, but written about it in detail. And you know, Marco is someone that speaks openly about the struggles and challenges he has. And I think also for those reasons we've talked about that that's important that you don't feel alone. But his writing does that too. And again going back to why I think it kept pulling me back was that at this point I really need to know that. I really need to know that. So as we go through he moves to that's why I say it's like a funnel. We've got the capturing of the chaos. We've got the moving towards we've got the it gets a little bit more okay we're going to you know if we like a drink maybe have a drink every now but when it gets closer and closer be a bit more strict and then you up to 15 minutes before the performance and then as I said earlier we go into the fris and performance. Now, for me, I'm not looking for those tricks, but as the free monkeys guy said, I think in the introduction, it's like you think you've got a handle on kind of what's going on in the tricks, and then when he starts explaining them, you realize you've just it's the tip of the iceberg. There is not one breath that he has taken on that stage in FISM 2022. And I haven't seen the the recent performance emphism which he entered but 2022 there's not one breath that has not been planned and executed with out reason. Now saying that he leaves room for improvisation. It's not like at this point I do this exactly at that time. He has to leave room for that. He's he's got great stuff about time about how to deal with time about how to look at it in a different way when you're putting a show together. And part of it is that leaving time if you're that kind of performance for that improvisation which he does but the the choice of why the crisps, why this everything. How does he want the judges to feel the way he walks on stage? What does he want them to think of him? And it's not in a kind of just a magical way, the misdirection way. It's kind of how he wants everybody to feel. But that does then become part of the misdirection because not only are they comfortable, they're seeing something quirky, they're seeing something different, they're also connecting with a human being, but it also gives him a lot more leeway when it comes to doing certain things because they're he's put them in a certain state. It sounds like hypnosis or anything like that. It's good human skills. And this book is definitely about being a human as well as a magician. And I think the two are not separate things if we're those kinds of performers. And I think part of what's lacking in magic is people not doing that. They kind of go right as a magician I'm this as a person I'm this but actually they feed each other so much that actually to acknowledge it and go how do we then enhance that process will bring us into a space where we do see those people like Danny Dortis like Leonard Green like Mal Kobe that just have that extra thing and that extra thing is kind of less of what other people have got which is I think a lack of authenticity that some people have when they're kind of completely acting it. So, not really review. This is it, but it's you kind of probably get an idea. I quite like the book, but I want you to know kind of the what's in it to allow you to make a informed decision. The breakdown of the FISMA act isn't these are the tricks I do. Again, we're going back to psychology, back to his anecdotal stories about why he does certain things. And there's a lot of callbacks to what you would have read leading up to that. you may be tempted to go, right, I've read all the stuff I love, which I did, and go, oh, I don't need to read the all the fisom stuff. Now, I did scan through that a little bit more quickly because this journey isn't done for me. I want to then go back and and start reading that and analyzing it in the way that I've done here. But I wanted to get this review out before books don't exist anymore. So hopefully by that you've got an idea. You know, I love the book, but for me and for those that are a part of their journey where it's not just about learning the tricks, and he does talk about technique in there, I think this is probably for me one of the most important books I've read on that subject. and for where I am now. When people ask me what my favorite magic books are, I mention Charlie Fry. I mention Michael Lamar, you know, Joby Royal Road for different reasons and they're incomparable. They're different things. But this book, for where I am now, and for for the detail in approaches and inspiration, let's not forget how important inspiration is. if in a good way this made me feel totally chaotic, totally unprepared, and told me why I'm not where I want to be with my performances. And he's hit the nail on the head. It won't be the same for everybody, but for me, it's it's given me an uncomfortable truth. It's held a mirror up to me, and it said, "Steve, sort your out." You know, if I'm doing this, what are you doing? and what I'm doing is clearly not enough. That is a good thing. And that discomfort again is why I've taken so long to do this review, but also why it's an important book and it's not something that's going on the shelf. It's going to be there all the time and it's going to get more and more post-it notes in it. There's my re um recommendation. It's not for everybody. If you want a trick book, it's not that. If you want something deeper, it's that my recommendation of you to you if you buy it is read it. Don't try and go through it like a novel. Stay with it. Go back to things. Put markers in it. There are things I read for the fourth time which I went, of course, that's what he's saying. It seems simple, but there was one word that completely kind of reframed it for me. talking about reframing it. The reframing of failure and of mediocrity is something again that I think will help so so many of you that have fear of failure in magic. The translation I think is phenomenal. I was reading this and I do apologize. I forgot the name of of the translator. The the um there are very few illustrations. There's loads by Mark Elby. the uh the illustrations, his notes out of his notebook notebooks are just brilliant. As are his notes out of his notebooks of analyzing the previous FISM winners. Just reading that in itself is going to give you so much insight laid out. It's laid out in quite an academic way, which I think is good. It's almost like a thesis. Um Timothy Griffin is a translation. A translation just as some translations are just so dry. It's like, oh, you were saying this and this is what we're going to say. He's really captured Marobi, this this kind of introverted, gentle person that just opens up in the in book form in ways that I haven't experienced that often. Drawings by Ever Elazald Elazardi Elazaldi. Ah, we always get that wrong. Um, ever we've seen his illustrations for Ben Harris's books. Uh, there's a there's real quality to the illustrations that clear and concise. Don't use AI. Use people like Ever. And uh, and there's not loads of them. they are later on in the book mostly when we go into the um the act and the but the hand drawings are beautiful. So uh and again just everything about it is great. You need to read it. This has been a long review. This isn't for everybody probably like the book. But for those people that know what I'm talking about, you know what we've got here. Thank you Free Monkeys for making it. It's beautifully made. Again, I've hammered this and it's still together, which I can't say for all magic books, it's very well made. It's not going to be falling apart like some, not all, but some magic books. Um, and total disclosure, with some books, I don't think this one, maybe I will with this one. Um, with some books and tricks, if I really love them, I may use a link. That means I get a little bit kickback from them. Now, you know me well enough now that I'm not going to review something well for that. It's not enough money for me to start sort of sacrificing my values for, but it will help a great deal. So, if you want to buy this, you can go straight to free monkeys or wherever to get the book. Uh, or you can click the link below and I may get a little kickback from it. I might not. I don't know if that's a thing yet, but you know, to carry on doing this. That will help me a great deal. So, I hope you understand and trust that it's not going to skew the review. Life is too short for me to spend months with a book just to get the odd few quid every time one gets sold. Uh, but thank you very much on that. Please uh check out all of Mark Obby stuff. He's got some new stuff coming out. Check out all of Free Monkey stuff and check out onlinemagic.co if you want to support me. Follow me on Instagram at Steve Fulner and the podcast uh Steve Faulner's Magic Show. There are banging episodes coming up and I think you'll enjoy them very much. Share them with your friends. Like and subscribe, all that good stuff. Take care. [Music]