1093 – Marvin’s Magic Bag

Notable Language:

• Infectious Relaxing Confidence
• Quality Shoulder Bag
• Misdirected by Misdirection

Notable Culture:

• Jim Nabors
• Pinnocchio
• San Francisco Fringe Fest

Notable Talking Points:

• The Walking Awkwardly Into a Party Podcast
• I remember David Blaine’s rise
• Can you have a magic wand in street magic?

Episode 1093 – Marvin's Magic Bag

 

[START OF RECORDING]

 

SCOOTER:    …and I couldn’t do it without all of you, my patron peeps.  I’d be crying like a baby, wa-wa-wa, without you, or like it was a baby…it was a birthday party and I’d cry even if I didn’t want to, so thanks, patrons.

 

INTRO:    [INTRO MUSIC] Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing?  Trouble getting to sleep?  Trouble staying asleep?  Well, welcome.  This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep.  We do it with a bedtime story.  Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press play.  I’m gonna do the rest.  What I’m going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you could set aside whatever’s keeping you awake, whether it’s thoughts that you’re thinking about, like about the past, the present, or the future.  So thoughts, anything you’re feeling emotionally that’s coming up for you.  Maybe it’s related to those thoughts, maybe it’s left over…remains of the day, remains of the year, whatever, feelings that are there, emotions.  Could also be physical sensations that are keeping you awake.

 

That’s a very common thing for listeners, so if it’s something physical that’s keeping you awake, I’m gonna try to take your mind off of that, too.  It could be also something I don’t…I’m not mentioning.  This could be something else; situational, time-related, temperature-related, something that…transitional.  Whatever it is, I’m here to keep you company whether you’re here…whether this is your first time, your last time, or you’re here all the time, or you’re not sure.  You’re like, did I…the old record thing where you say did I just walk into the wrong podcast?  I’d say, I don’t know.  Why don’t we find out?  Imagine that…I’m already on a tangent, but imagine…so, for those…I know everybody…maybe not everybody’s familiar with this.  Is this a metaphor or a archetypal image?

 

It’s definitely not archetypal if not everybody knows about it.  But there used to be this idea that you would walk into a bar or a restaurant or a party and the record would skip.  But it really wouldn’t skip; it would go rrrmp and it would stop playing.  Then I think the next image is what everybody’s familiar with.  Everybody…their attention turn…everything stops and their attention turns to you in not a positive way, what you feel like or you imagine is not a positive way.  We’ve all been in that situation before, and normally…well, there’s two things…the questions that may come up.  You say, am I welcome here or am I in the wrong place?  So, I’m gonna address…we’re only gonna…I’m supposed to be making a sleep podcast intro, but let’s address the first one.

 

Let’s imagine…let’s see if I can make this whole thing a metaphor for the sleep podcast instead of…let’s see if we can achieve two thing…let’s see if I can try to achieve two things unsuccessfully.  I do that all the time; maybe even three.  So, I’ll come back to that.  So, whatever’s keeping you awake, I’m here to keep you company so you can drift off.  That’s a little bit different…the way I’m gonna try to do it is I’m gonna send my voice across the deep, dark night.  I’m gonna use lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones.  What does that mean?  It means my voice…oh, creaky, dulcet tones, pointless meanders, and superfluous tangents.  So, it means my voice is a little bit different; not super soothing, traditionally, but you may grow to listen to…you may get to the point where you can just barely listen to it.

 

That’s what a lot of people do.  It’s a forgettable voice.  It’s so unforgettably creaky, dulcet that you could eventually barely listen to it.  You say, Scoots’ voice isn’t soothing; it’s ignorable, which maybe I’ll go into this next thing if we ever get there.  Then…oh, creaky…oh, pointless meanders mean…you’ve kinda seen those already.  I get mixed up, I go off-topic, I start talking about something, I…then I start talking about something else.  So, that’s how we do it.  Now, the important things to know are how and why, or why is the most important thing, and then how, and then what to expect.  So, why do I make the show?

 

Well, much like our imaginary self that’s walked into a room, a gathering…some sort of gathering of people and suddenly finds themselves feeling not comfortable, I also have been someone that’s found myself in bed tossing, turning, mind racing, trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep.  So, I’ve been there.  So, if you…if you’re there now, I know how it feels.  Now, I might not know exactly what you’re going through, but I can relate to a lot of the feelings; frustration, loneliness, and just exasperation and tiredness.  So, that’s one of the reasons I make the show, but the main reason is that you deserve a good night’s sleep.  You deserve a place you can rest and a bedtime you don’t have to dread, like the bedtime you could look forward to or at least feel neutral about.  I’d like to try to provide that for you.

 

Now, there’s a couple twists there; one, can’t provide it for everybody.  I’m just not everybody’s cup of tea.  If you’ve already discovered that, you could check out sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothankyou.  That has other sleep podcasts and stuff like that there.  But what was my other point?  Oh, so yeah, I’m not everybody’s cup of tea, but even the people that listen to the show, the regular listeners…I’ve heard this literally I think hundreds of thousands of times; it took two or three tries for me to get used to the fact, the structure of the show, or his voice, or his style.  That’s natural, if you think about it, because if you’re like a lot of us, you’ve tried a bunch of different things, right, and none of it really worked consistently.  So, this show is not gonna work instantly and consistently either, so just kinda see how it goes.

 

Also, this…podcast kinda is more walking hand-in-hand with you than putting you to sleep.  But the most important thing that I was getting to is that you deserve a good night’s sleep.  You really do.  So, that’s the most important thing to…for me, is if…whether I provide it or somebody else does, or you create your own bedtime routine.  That’s the most important thing you’ll hear tonight, except for all the stuff I was talking about earlier that I said I’d get back to…that I totally forgot what I was talking about.  Oh, walking into a room; okay.  So, just like that, and I guess this kinda goes into how the show works, so that’s why I make the show.

 

Just like when you were walking in that room; what if you had…well, you know, you may have a friend there, but what if you had one of those super-soothing, confident friends who you…whose confidence was so powerful that it affected you in a relaxing way?  Maybe it was infectious in a good way.  Let’s just hold that thought while I try…hold that thought while I get to other stuff I have.  So, I don’t know what that has to do with anything, either.  I just didn’t want to forget it, ‘cause it’ll relate to…it’ll barely relate to some point.  But oh, okay, so you say, how does the show work?  It puts me to sleep?  It’s a podcast to put me to sleep?  Do I listen to it and I hear a bedtime story and it slowly relaxes me and puts me to sleep?  No, unfortunately not.  Maybe, though.  I don’t know.

 

There’s people that listen to it that way, but this podcast is here to keep you company as you fall asleep and take your mind off of stuff.  So one, a lot of times this podcast works if you barely listen or you barely pay attention.  Maybe like that confident friend, they’re not paying attention; they’re going into the room.  Like, they’re so well-adjusted, they’re not even…they’re not thinking that people are looking at them or…they’re like huh, song just skipped.  Anyway, moving on, I’m gonna have an hors d’oeuvre or do a twirl or check my coat or whatever they do.  Whatever well-adjusted people do when they go to a party; greet people, wave, smile.  They’re not aware.

 

Their mind is in a different place, and…what does that have to do with…oh, this…they’re barely listening to those…I guess this is my imagination, so it is fictional, but…’cause I don’t have a well-adjusted mind.  But I would imagine that they’re not listening to those voices in their head like I am.  Like oh boy, you’re…by the way, your socks don’t match again, and one’s inside-out.  You say oh boy, that’s the least of my problems, but thanks for bringing it up.  So, this podcast kinda serves the same thing; you just barely listen to it, but you barely listen to it and it kinda distracts you from whatever else is going on.  Now, the thing is, you can listen, so if you can’t sleep, I’m here to the very end.

 

So, that’s also…I’m here to keep you company is really what my job is, not to put you to sleep, to make the night less lonely, less deep and dark, to be your bore-friend, your bore-bae, your bore-cuz, your bore-sib, your bore-bestie, your bore-bruh, your neigh-bore, your bore-bae, ‘cause I’m not confident in a lot of things, but I’m confident that I can be here for you for the next hour, rambling about stuff, and that’s important to me.  Your sleep is important to me.  I’m confident in that, and that’s a fact.  Our world will be a better place if you get the sleep you deserve and if you have a restful place.

 

So, just like maybe if we had a friend like that that said hey, this…I don’t know what they would say ‘cause…but if you walked in the room, say hey, don’t worry about it…if they said something more effective than that, but this isn’t the Walking into an…Walking Awkward into a Party Podcast.  I mean, I guess it is.  Really, it is, but that’s what every episode’s like.  But so, those are two parts of the show.  The other thing that can throw new listeners off is the structure of the show, and that’s understandable too ‘cause our show is structured in a very deliberate way to meet a lot of different goals, but it’s also very different than what would traditionally be called structure.

 

So, the show starts off with the greeting; ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and friends beyond the binary, or friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls…I think I even said babies in this one, or babies at heart, which I am.  That’s so you feel welcome and seen, and maybe that’s one part of this party metaphor, is if you go in the room and something…maybe some eye contact, maybe a smile, maybe your friend’s confidence.  Maybe they’re invisible.  Here’s something I wish I had; a confident, invisible friend.  I never checked with my imaginary friend.  You say oh no, no, this isn’t…that’s the difference.  As adults, you say no, no, it’s not an imaginary friend.  My friend is invisible and really confident.  They say, so you have an invisible, imaginary friend?  No, no, no.  I have an invisible friend.

 

They ooze confidence that makes me comfortable and confident.  They walk at my side and they say, is this a belief system?  No, no, no, it’s a fact.  I have an invisible…I’m sorry, do…why…let me confer with my invisible friend.  These questions are throwing me off.  They were just here for me to get into the party.  I guess I’m talking to you; I’m here at the party, so job done.  What was I talking about, though?  Structure of the show.  Oh, okay.  Why is the show structured…?  Starts off with a greeting so you feel welcome, you realize oh, the show’s a little bit goofy and silly, then there’s support for the show so the show can come out for free twice a week, wherever you consume podcasts.  That’s important to me; it helps the maximum amount of people it can help, and the support allows us to do that.

 

Then there’s resources and support for listeners and communities around the show.  Then there’s the intro, which is really a show within a show.  You’re right; a normal intro takes two minutes.  Ours takes fifteen to twenty minutes, but it’s not just…I don’t know.  It’s not part of the business; it’s its own show, and it serves a couple things.  One, it introduces new people to the show not exactly in an efficient way, but for regular listeners…but even for you if you’re new, it eases you into bedtime.  The intro is not so much to put you to sleep.  You could fall asleep during it, you could skip it, but for a lot of listeners, it’s part of their bedtime routine, their wind-down, is this fifteen to twenty minutes.

 

Whether they’re getting ready for bed, they’re doing something relaxing, they’re in bed getting comfortable, the intro is a transition between day and…or whatever, evening and sleep or whatever.  For me, it’s really one of the only things that’s worked, is having a little bit of a bedtime routine.  So, that’s really the intro’s purpose, and you could skip it; 2% to 3% of people do.  You could subscribe on Patreon and get story-only episodes, but just see how it goes at first, if you wish.  You don’t have to do that, either.  So, that’s the intro, then there’s business between the intro and the story, again so the goal…versus being an exclusive show or something is that it’s on all podcast apps twice a week for free.  So, paying for the show is optional.  So, that’s…then there’s a story.

 

Tonight it’ll be something a little bit different, dare I say magical, where I unbox a magic kit and speculate.  I don’t reveal any tricks because it’d be beyond my understanding anyway.  But I just say huh, what’s in this box?  Talk about something you could sleep to, playing cards that never…that I don’t understand.  So, that’ll be…and then there’s thank-yous at the end.  So, that’s the structure of the show, that’s why I make the show, but I also make the show…to go back to this walking into a room and not feeling comfortable, that’s one reason to make the show, right?  I don’t know if those things always line up, but I know how that feels too, and I can feel it right now.  There is something out there that’s…you could have an invisible, con…I mean, who cares what normal people say?

 

A confident, invisible friend, because that would be nice, to say hey, it’s okay.  I know this party’s gonna be tough on you.  I know it feels a little bit awkward, and it’s okay to be awkward.  I’m glad you’re here.  You say oh wow, my invisible friend’s glad I’m…maybe…okay, here’s another one; we’ll add onto this idea.  What if there’s an invisible, imaginary guest we’re not friends with?  Future friend, and that’s the first person we greet at the party.  This might actually work.  Can you patent obscure, senseless ideas?  So, here’s the thing; I’m not kidding.  A lot of…if you’re new, you might think I’m joking around.

 

I will…I promise to try this later today ‘cause I have to go…it’s a virtual meeting, but I will try it out later today, is…so, not only…maybe we don’t need the invisible…I mean, no offense to our invisible friend, but what if there’s an invisible party guest we don’t know who’s the first person we greet at the party, and they are so happy to see us?  You could mix it up; if you want some of those yadda-yadda feelings, you could make those, too.  You say oh boy, they’re glad I’m here.  We make eye contact with them, we smile at them, and they say they’re not staring at us slack-jawed because the record skipped.  You say, I may be in the right place seeing that look on that imaginary, invisible person’s face.  They’re not imaginary; they’re just invisible, by the way.  Yeah, that makes me feel a little bit more comfortable.

 

You can kinda see that that doesn’t…translating all that to the real world is…making a sleep podcast is a little bit easier than that, but I do…I’m gonna try that out.  I’m not even kidding.  I think it’ll work.  I’m just delusional enough to believe this is gonna work.  Invisible friends; not imaginary.  Invisible, fictional friends.  That’s a little bit different.  I mean…or, you know, what’s wrong…we’ve done…we’ve covered imaginary friendship before on this show, but I’ve never covered imaginary strangers, imaginary party guests that are glad to see us even though they don’t know us.  This is the key cog.  This may be the keystone in the imaginary friend continuum that fixes nothing but makes…maybe makes me more comfortable some places.  Maybe they give a nod, like you’re not…it’s okay to be awkward.  I’m glad you’re here, too.

 

It’s good to see you.  That’s really the message of the show; it’s good to see you.  I’m glad you’re here, and I really do want to help you fall asleep or keep you company if you need it.  That’s what I do.  I really work hard on the show.  I yearn and I strive to help you fall asleep or make you feel less alone.  I’m glad you’re here.  I really hope I can help.  I think I just repeated myself, but yeah.  Thanks for giving me your time, and here’s a couple ways I’m able to do this for you for free twice a week.

 

Alright everybody, Scoots here.  This is the first time we’ve done…we’ve done stuff similar to this before, but this is different in some sense, and…so, we’ll see how it goes.  It’s gonna be fun.  I’m just trying to figure out the proper setup because this is the first time we’re doing this.  There may be…will there be a second time?  Maybe.  Probably, but I can’t be 100% sure.  But so, we’ve done board game unboxings before, and this one is a little bit different than that.  I’m big in…I’m not a…well, I guess I…I like going to thrift stores, and particularly ones affiliated…like Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, Goodwill, or smaller ones.  I don’t go there for fashion because I just don’t have…it’s not my forte.  Sometimes I’ll look at clothes, but I definitely don’t…my brain doesn’t work that way.

 

I got my daughter into it, though we tend to go to the stores at a different pace.  I tend to go at a pace that’s the exact opposite of Sleep With Me.  That’s how I do my…most of my life other than this podcast, at a rate that could be described as furious.  So, I tend to go…I tend to look at records just to see…here’s the thing; if you need a Jim Nabors record, just go to any Good…any used store.  That’s not a insult to Jim Nabors.  Jim Nabors was a star on television before I was even a lad or a twinkle in anyone’s eye, not that I’ve ever been a twinkle in anybody’s eye.  But anyway, Jim Nabors was a TV star that also had a singing career.  Here’s what…’cause most professional…people that buy stuff at thrift stores and then resell it, they get all the records you would actually want to listen to, for the most part.

 

I’m not saying all the time.  So, if you go to a Goodwill, you could get Jim Nabors records, sometimes you could get good musicals or operas or classical record albums.  Sometimes you get good holiday albums, and…I’m trying to think what else you could normally get.  Then, other than that, it tends to be interesting, but not the good…I mean, not…for the most part, not the good kind of interesting.  How am I talking about records?  One day we’ll do that, but not the good kind of interesting; the kind of interesting where you’re like oh, I never listened to that.  I think I’ve gotten records like that.  I say oh, I’ll listen to that, a band that had one-hit wonders…other albums is normally from classic rock.  You say okay, I didn’t know…I’m trying to think of a band without…I don’t know.

 

So anyway, BTO…I say, I don’t know any BTO songs, but I know I know one; I just don’t know the name of it, and it’s not on this album that I bought.  Okay, so going with that, I found recently a new kind of item occasionally could appear, and I got really lucky twice or three times, but…and was…and I didn’t even think to look, was magic tricks or magic trick sets.  So, I don’t know how long this setup will take.  It might take so long for me to set this up that it’ll be a whole ‘nother episode, but I don’t think so.  Or maybe I could talk about some of it on this episode and then on another episode.  But so, it was the holiday season of 2021 and I was thinking of…I don’t know.  I was just…my brain was just running through stuff and I said remember one holiday season, we got a magic set, and we may have gotten more than one.

 

Then I also remembered wait a second, I got a used magic set one time at a garage…I don’t think it was at a store, but it was at a garage sale or something.  So, I was like, thinking about it; I’m like huh, I wonder if any of the stores have magic tricks that I peruse.  It turns out the answer is yes, they do.  The one thing I found…now, he doesn’t listen to this podcast, but I found these…not just one, but a two-pack of this magic set.  The same magic kit twice was packaged together.  I assume someone had had two of them and donated them.  I don’t know if they were having trouble selling them, so then they put them together.  I said well, I can get one for me and one for somebody else.  Now, note going forward; I don’t think I’ll ever do any magic tricks.

 

So, you could say I’m an aspirational…I’m a aspirational musician and magician, or conjurer.  That’s okay.  I know who I am sometimes, and I know I’m only gonna be a aspirational magician.  Now, if you want a real podcasting magician, Phoebe, Phoebe Judge, is the foremost, I would say, or podcasting…a podcaster of renown who was also…can…is a magician, or a performer of magic tricks.  I don’t know what the proper term is, even.  That’s how…I can’t even aspire to address it correctly.  So, okay, so where are we at?  So, we’ll open up this magic set, but I wanted to kinda set up my…some of my relationship with magic.  I did see Phoebe do one magic trick, I think, in Seattle one time.  Oh no, and then on…and performing…Phoebe did one when I saw Criminal live in San Francisco.

 

Shout-out to Lauren who is also a friend of the show, a friend of mine, so…producer of Criminal, and Phoebe Reads a Mystery, and This Is Love or Is This Love.  Is This Love?  No; that’s a…that’s a BTO song, Scoots.  No, I think that’s White Snake, actually.  No, I don’t know what…but okay, so, magic; let’s focus on magic, here.  I have some good magic stories, but let’s just focus for now and then I’ll tell some of the other ones maybe later.  I’ve told a couple of them before.  But so, here’s the things I remember about getting a magic set when I was a kid, and maybe more than one.  Now, here’s one honest thing; I have no idea if I asked for them or someone said maybe this kid’s so strange he’ll like a magic set, because I don’t remember wanting to do magic, but I do remember getting more than one magic set.

 

I’m not saying that in a pejorative way.  I was a strange child.  I had strange tastes, so someone saying huh, maybe this will be the thing.  The kid, he was a gymnastic school dropout, basketball camp dropout.  I quit basketball camp the first day when someone asked me why my face was so red from running.  Like I said, one gymnastics…once I found out I wasn’t gonna be doing flips within the first class, I said this is definitely not…I said I’m sorry, what?  We’re just gonna run and touch the…I’m here to spring and sprung.  Many other things I didn’t follow through on, but…and magic’s in that great category for me.  A little bit…yeah.  So, I got this magic set.  The one I know I got was from a magician named Blackstone.

 

Now I’ll have to research it because I say, is…who is…is that person…is it even proper to talk about them?  Let’s see, I…and I think…and then I got the used magic set I think around the same time, ‘cause then I tried to combine them.  But I didn’t do very many magic tricks, even the ones…because…and I don’t want to…I think it was just my…I’m not ambitious, and while there are things I’ve learned to follow a set prescribed series of steps with, it’s not a…it’s not something that I’m really…yeah, I’m not exactly skilled at as far as…I’m just not.  Follow-through is just not…was not my thing even as a kid.  I remember there was a bottle one.  I mean, I’m sure the most basic ones I was able to do, but I mean, one of the beautiful things about magicians and people…especially close-up magic, is that it takes a lot of practice to create those illusions.

 

One of the gifts I have is my memory is not good and I’m easily…I…my suspension of disbelief is…and my ability to catch stuff is not great.  So, I really am like a mag…I love magic.  So, let’s…we’ll just talk about that for a second.  I love…now, I don’t…I haven’t been to the Magic Castle, haven’t been to any magic shows in Vegas, so I guess I’m not…I like magic.  I guess I’m not qualified to say I love magic.  But I do not remember…even if someone shows me how they performed a trick and then…I mean, as long as six to twelve months pass, I could see the trick again; I’ll have no idea how they did it.  Part of me really doesn’t want to know.  I guess sometimes it’s cool when those…the specials used to be on.

 

I watched all those specials and then I would see them…and then I would watch them again years later and I’d say, I have no idea how they do that trick, and I still don’t.  Then I remember when David…no, who was it?  Was it David Blaine started to…he seemed to rise to quick prominence, and he was very skilled at…I remember watching a special probably in the aughts, and my mind was blown.  Some of the stuff he was doing…this was early David Blaine, or, well, once he was famous, but not…when he was doing these endurance challenges that he became known for probably in the later aughts.  But he was doing more…and this kinda goes in…this is a good introduction to what we’re talking about, ‘cause I don’t know the timelines, so maybe I could look that up too, of David Blaine and then this particular magic kit.

 

But David Blaine, they called it street magic.  If you’re not familiar with David Blaine, he’s a very charismatic, handsome, I would say, illusionist or magician or performer of magic.  He became more known for doing these kind of…these other things like…whatever, sitting in something on one bridge or something like that.  Those were cool too, but he also would do the magic where he’d be just walking around.  This is just my…I’ll just do…he’d walk up to a group of people…this would be his…the first special I remember seeing, and he’d say hey — to a group of people in Venice or Santa Monica or something — he’d say hey, what’s going on?  He’d say, look at your forearm.

 

The person would look at their forearm and then there would be two…there’d be a Sharpie of the two of spades there, and then David Blaine would have it on his forehead when they looked back up or something.  Or he’d say pick a card, and then all of a sudden, a sky-writer would do the card, or it would have already done the card the day you picked.  I’m not doing it justice.  Or one…he had stuff like…I don’t know.  It just seemed impossible.  I’m willing to believe because I’m not like oh, this is just gimmicky editing or something.  So, I don’t know.  So, it was really cool, and he called it…they called it…oh, street magic, ‘cause he’s just out on the street, which, at least when you’re watching it on TV, you say okay, well, there’s gonna be less likely…he doesn’t have a stage or whatever.

 

So, that brings us to this…these magic kits I found, and I’m gonna grab the box cover first and then describe that, and then we’ll go from there.  Now, I will change it a little bit because…just ‘cause I don’t want to…I don’t know anything about it.  For magicians aged eight to adult.  So, that’s a good sign.  I’m gonna call it Marty’s Magic; Marty’s Mind-Blowing Magic.  Marty’s Magic is number-one for magic worldwide.  Magic’s kinda written in a little bit of a graffiti style with two arrows going in different directions.  This was back when stuff was on DVD.  I’ll try to find a date on the box.  I only have half the box.  It comes with a quality shoulder bag loaded with a cool collection of amazing magic tricks and stunts.

 

Then it has a DVD, then it has what…who I would assume is Marty holding up a King of Hearts and covering one of his eyes.  So, you can only see one of his eyes, and he’s kinda cloaked with a little bit of shadow.  It says it includes a DVD, amazing secret cards, mysterious mind-reading spooky magic, illusions, defy gravity, appear, transform, and vanish.  Unbelievable street-wise trickery plus exclusive magic bag.  It’s a pretty big box; it’s a rectangle bigger than a board game, but not that much bigger.  The majority of the box is a black-and-white photo with the background kinda streaked out of focus, and on the left side of the photo is the back of Marty.  He has sunglasses on and we only see the back of his head.  I assume it’s Marty.  The bag that comes with the magic set is in color.

 

He’s holding a card which is also in color, and then there’s a group of one, two, three, four, five, six children who I would assume are aged eight to twelve, maybe even fourteen, and they’re watching and their minds are blown.  They’re all different kind of reaction shots, so whether the kids were acting or not, they really did a good job, or the photographer did, because you have one, two, three, four, five, six different reactions, all of amazement, though the kid all the way on the left, he looks more stunned and he’s actually not looking at…well, he has sunglasses on, so he’s actually not looking at the…huh.  Actually, if we had a magnifying glass, we could look at the reflection in his sunglasses doesn’t seem to be matching what we’re seeing, but I’ll have to do that.

 

Marty is the creator of…mind-blowing set gives you everything you need to baffle and mystify audiences.  But I don’t see a date anywhere, but I do have this instruction book.  Oh, 2003, so this was the aughts.  It’s from the UK.  I’m not gonna read the instructions ‘cause I’m not here to expose behind the magic.  Like I said, I like to be baffled, but I’m more…I think what I was more into was the accoutrements of magic.  Let’s just see how many tricks it comes with since I have the instructions in my hand.  First we have a introduction, new generation of magicians, mind-blowing tricks…this will give you everything you need.  Tricks and props…the unique magic shoulder bag.  I wonder if the shoulder bag is actually magic.  Unlike the years of dedicated practice that professional magicians require, you’ll be able to do it quickly.

 

Once you’ve learned how to do it, you’ve got to practice and patter your words and every gesture until you’re confident.  That way it’ll go someway.  Then it has on the…one, two, three…I wonder if this is how many tricks it has.  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen squares not with tricks, but different stuff that comes in there.  Okay, it comes with the…let’s see, shoulder bag…oh, I don’t want to read this ‘cause this is all the things, but I wanna see…I do want to see how many things it does come with, ‘cause this is a pretty good deal.  I’d have to look at how much it cost me.  It looks like there’s forty-nine tricks total, and it actually talks about Marty, whose name I changed just in case.

 

They grew up in a magical family surrounded by some of the most famous people in the world.  It looks like Marty’s a famous UK magician.  Close-up magic…fifteen years…inspired hundreds of thousands of budding magicians worldwide.  2003.  So, now I have in my hands the bag.  What’s funny about it is that these bags are…these bags have kinda come back in style.  I don’t know the quality of the bag; I’ll have to check the stitches and stuff.  But it’s a blue camo bag, so it has one, two…so, it has a royal blue, a navy blue, a light blue, and a very dark blue…indigo, maybe, even, camo.  It has a rubber tag on it that says Mind-Blowing.  It’s a shoulder bag, so it’s not quite what’s back in, which is…what are those things called that you wear around your waist?  Fanny pack.  This is a shoulder bag.  Actually, these were big in the aughts.

 

I bought one in Italy, in Florence, Italy, I believe, a shoulder bag to wear around the rest of when I was cruising around Europe.  Or actually, I was only cruising around Italy, but my brother lived there.  So, it’s a shoulder bag or…what do they call it?  Cross-body bag nowadays.  It has a vertical zipper which probably isn’t good ‘cause it’d probably…for me, stuff would fall out.  So, it has a front pocket with…what do you call that?  It’s not lace.  Kind of a netting type of thing you could put something in, but it would definitely fall out.  Then it has a front pocket.  The front pocket with Velcro’s pretty…the Velcro is sturdy and it has room in there.  Let’s just check the stitching.  It does have one of those…it looks like it was actually…the bag is actually made from…the material is pretty thick, too.

 

It definitely has a smell like it’s been inside packaging since 2003, which it has.  Now’s the exciting part, ‘cause I’m just gonna hold the bag.  I put everything in the bag from the box, and then I’m gonna reach in the bag and we’ll see what we come out with, huh?  Okay, the first thing was the DVD.  I don’t think I…oh no, I have a Xbox, so I could put this in the Xbox, maybe.  So, it’s the DVD.  It has Marty on the left holding the King of Hearts in a black suit or really dark blue suit, a dark blue matching…no tie.  It’s fifty-six minutes.  The DVD is from 2004 though, the copyright.  Mind-blowing magic.  Cool, amazing tricks, miraculous, mind-reading, tricks with money, tricks and stunts.  So, that’s the DVD.  Let’s see what we pull out next, and then I’ll…maybe I’ll just contemplate what it is.

 

Okay, this one is…it’s a…what would you call this?  It kinda looks like a tongue depressor.  I’m sure that’s…it’s a shape…or you know what you use to…a pizza peel shape.  You know how’s…it has the handle and then the pizza peel part, but if the pizza peel part was elongated into a thing.  It’s silver, and then on one side are two flying friends, we’ll say.  Oh, house flying friends, like plastic versions of them.  Then on other…the other side is one.  So, I was trying to flick it back and forth.  I don’t know if that’s the trick, because it’s not doing anything.  But yeah, and then I think…I know there’s another one in there.  So, I don’t know what kind of trick this would be, because I’m not a magician, but maybe making them disappear or maybe you hold it up?  I don’t know, or maybe it’s some sort of counting game.  I don’t know.

 

So, that’s that one.  Okay, so, my hand just touched something.  Oh boy.  Okay, cool; this is…what do we got here?  This one’s folded up.  Okay, so this is appearing bank notes, but on the other side it has a card, and it’s…and then inside is a card, or a couple cards.  I don’t know if they’re trick cards or what.  I don’t think…I don’t see anything trickery about them.  There’s a Jack of Clubs and a Jack of Hearts inside a little thing.  Oh no…okay…but one of them has a false back on it, so it has a place on the card…the card’s like an envelope, so you could probably hide something in the card.  Cool.  So, it is…I’d assume you use that for making appearing bank notes or whatever.  Okay, now I have another one, another money one.  This one says please read instructions before folding.  So, I will not fold it, but it’s amazing moving money.

 

But the…there’s some details on there.  Looks kinda like…I don’t know if anybody was a Disney fan back in the day, but they had…what are those called?  Mickey Bucks or something?  Disney Dollars, they were called.  Ray just yelled at me.  So, the first one looks like a dollar but it has Marty on the top, and it says Mind-Blowing Magic I, 1989.  It has Marty’s signature.  Fellow magicians agree never to reveal the secrets.  Thirty-seven…ten…1089.  Then on the other side you could see…okay, there’s something with the way you fold it that I don’t understand.  So, one side…and then the other one is the ten, and it says thirty-seven, 1089, it has Marty, and the other side’s the same.  It’s a ten.  So, I don’t know.  I guess some trick that involves folding; that’s all we know.  Also on the ten is a symbol.

 

It looks a little bit…it’s like…what is that called?  I don’t know, an outline of what looks just in my imagination is…what’s that…what’s…Pinocchio’s conscience; what was his name?  Jiminy Cricket.  Obviously it’s not, but maybe you’ll say Jiminy.  Okay, let’s reach in, let’s reach a little bit deeper this time.  Okay, oh boy, I got something.  I don’t know what it is.  Oh, it’s a square.  Okay, so this one is a cube, like a dice but larger.  I would say it’s actually almost exactly one-inch square, or each square is one inch across.  I don’t know.  What’s that called?  Not the circumference; that’s a circle.  On each part of the dice or the square, one has an ear, one has a mouth, one has a nose, one has an eye, one has a hand.  Let’s count.  Oh, one has a head with a question mark.

 

Okay, ear, head with question mark, nose, eye, then hand, head, mouth, eye, and then they also have different squares for colors.  Like, the head has blue squares, the mouth has white squares, the eye has red or orange squares, hand has green, ear has yellow, mouth has white, nose has pink.  So, I don’t know.  I have really no idea.  Some sort of cubing…I don’t…some sort of magic, obviously.  Okay, so we’re digging deep, here.  Oh, we got something.  Oh, interesting.  So, this one is a marker and it has a clip to tie…to clip the marker to your body or to something on the cap.  I don’t know if that’s so you don’t lose it or that’s some sort of magic trick.  I mean, I wonder if the marker’s dried out.  I don’t think it’s ever been opened.  It may be dried out.  I can’t tell.

 

I don’t know, this may be like one of this magic pens, or it’s a marker that I’ll never lose the cap to, ‘cause you could clip it and it has a piece of string attached to the cap.  But I do remember some of those magic tricks where you’d clip something and then it would retract or whatever.  I don’t remember what it was; I think I had something like that, and that was one of the few ones that I could actually do.  Then I think all of us vent…maybe not everyone, but here’s something that used to be a Christmas present people would get, and I always thought it was fun.  I never got it as a gift, but it’s like a real…well, maybe it’s not a real dollar.  Maybe you just get the kit to use with a real dollar, but it’s a piece of almost-invisible…a long piece of nearly-invisible fishing line and a retractor with a button, and then you clip it to real money and you put it on the ground, you know?

 

You’ve seen it, and then you can kinda make it come back.  I’ve fallen victim to that before more than once.  That’s the kinda thing when I saw in real life, I was like, I thought that only happened in cartoons, but now I’m seeing it in real life.  I don’t know if it was a friend or a sibling that had that, or a cousin or something.  Okay, I reached in, I got another one of these pieces of pizza peel silver with the house flying friend on there.  But this one just has one on one side and none on the other.  Is this…this is…couldn’t get more sleepy than this, right?  It’s like…okay, here we go; we got the cards.  But yeah, this is totally like a sleep podcast.  Okay, this is the magician’s secret cards.  It has a Marty label on it, and then the class…the cards are first-class playing cards.

 

So, here’s another tangent, right, is that I did get a pack of trick cards.  Once I bought myself one, and then another time I think I was given one, or maybe not.  We claim exclusive rights in Ace of Spades, Jokers, and back design.  First-class limited UK.  Classic playing cards.  So, the cards I had…I think the cards I was given…and this might have been when I was in college, was…so, maybe I bought them, but they had a way you could read the cards.  Like, the cards…on the back of them, they had a very subtle design with clocks.  So, you could read the person’s card.  If it was down in front of you, you could do this quick, shorthand math.  I mean, I couldn’t do it because I’m not good at math or memorizing.  But you’d say oh, that’s at 4:00; that means it’s a club.  Then it’s at a 10:00; it’s a Ten of Clubs.  There’s a way to do that.

 

Then I think they were also…whatever they call that that magicians have where the cards are cut in a certain way.  But then I think there was instructions, of course, that I didn’t read, just like we’re doing now.  I never…I think you had to organize the cards in another way.  The other cards I had that I remember I think I bought were…or maybe these were the same ones.  There was…I think…so, there’s fifty-two cards in a normal deck, correct?  I think this one that I’m imagining in my mind, it had twenty-six regular cards…what’s fifty-two…that’s twenty-six, right, is half of that?  Then it had twenty-six Jack of Hearts or something.  But that might have been a different deck, and…or maybe it had fifty percent.  So, these are whatever they’re called.

 

I can see when I open the box that the box is staggered, so there’s…but it’s still in plastic.  Oh boy, talk about happy.  So, I’ll be right back.  I’m gonna open these cards.  So, I opened the cards.  I haven’t looked at them, other than the bottom card is a Three of Clubs.  I will say one thing, though; I know that if you’re a real magician or somebody that actually practices illusions…that’s what I’d say; someone that’s really good at practicing illusions, I know maybe this is just picturing these kinda more packaged tricks as just people’s entry point into magic.  Okay, so this deck, I will say, is similar…oh, whoa…to exactly what I was saying.  I’m not gonna reveal the cards, but I would say this is a fifty-fifty deck.

 

There is a Joker who is a magician, a cartoon magician, there’s Three of Clubs, there’s spades and hearts and clubs and kings and aces and three, four…and oh, there’s a black-and-white Joker, and then there’s a couple blank cards, too.  So again, this is the kinda card…the deck you kinda gotta figure out.  I don’t know.  You gotta follow the instructions.  I don’t see any…well, let’s check the back to see if there’s any difference in the back.  I don’t necessarily see that this is the one…like, the one I was talking about that has a thing where you can…thing, but I do think I had this similar deck, which it’s like, fifty-fifty.  So, that’s the magic cards.  I’m pretty sure it matches the other ones with the fake…the false back where you could hide money or whatever.  I don’t know.  I think I went to one…I’d like to go to more magic shows.

 

There’s a magician that was big in San Francisco about twelve years ago, Christian, and he, I think, moved to LA.  I think his…Christian See was his name.  This was back when I was trying to figure out what I was gonna do.  This was before the podcast and I was volunteering, so this would have been 2000…I don’t know when it was, but I was volunteering.  I got into…I did some volunteer helping at San Francisco Fringe Fest, because if you volunteered as a usher or a ticket taker or whatever, then you could kinda be…you got into the shows.  You could get onto the waiting list to get into shows for free.  Then the theatre that ran San Francisco…I think it was EXIT Theatre.

 

I started volunteering there a few times, and I would…what I would do is I would just take tickets or whatever, usher, and I did his show a few times, but I didn’t go into the show.  I don’t know why.  But he was really nice.  So, I never saw him perform, unfortunately, but I would like to get into going to more magic shows, is what I’m saying, in the next couple years.  Okay, I got another one here, another card trick, and we can confirm my other assumption about the cards.  It is the same card back, so it can match your main card set.  This one is Color-Changing Kings to Aces, it’s called.  They come in their own little envelope to make it easy to store.

 

I don’t know how it works, but it’s…you got two aces and two kings with possibly a little deception in there, but you got four cards, and somehow if you follow the instructions, you can make the kings change into aces somehow, with a little sleight of hand, as they say.  Alright, we’re still digging here, and ooh, I got something.  Let me…let’s do this; my hand is in the bag and I’m trying to think…okay, so I have another cube in my hand.  Also I have a piece of string.  Finally got it off my finger.  This is a cube; it has one sunken part, and that’s all I know.  I’m pulling it out.  Oh, it’s an ice cube.  This seems more like one of those gags you would have.  It’s a fake…a lucite ice cube with a flying friend in there, a plastic one; not a real one.  Don’t worry.  Flying house friend, similar to those things, like those pizza peels.  So, I don’t know.

 

I don’t know, I don’t like…I’m not a big fan of April Fools.  I prefer to be fooled by an illusionist for fun than, you know, for sport.  Okay, I’m back in here.  These, I have no idea.  So, these ones are just rectangles with stickers on them.  Rounded edges…one has a rounded edge; one is…one has flat edges.  One is a yellow on both sides, a rectangle that has rounded edges, and then a red…and I think there’s a third one, but this one is a red rectangle with flat edges.  Yeah, that’s all I know.  I have no idea even what trick it would be.  Okay, going back in here, eyes closed.  Let me see.  Okay, I have something else in my hand; it’s a box.  It’s plastic.  It has a cap, a top, so like a square…cube.  It’s grey.  I don’t know what’s in here, so this…it’s a grey…like a gift box, but tiny.  One-and-a-half…oh, and it’s empty.

 

So, you could either put…I guess in this gift box, you could either put the cube or the ice cube in there.  I’m just gonna see if I can fit this…the square with the hand and mouth in there.  It doesn’t exactly fit perfectly, so I don’t know what this is for.  It’s interesting, though.  It actually has a look like…it has kind of…they did a good job giving it a rougher look, too, ‘cause at first glance I thought it was made from paper.  Okay, I’m reaching back in.  Okay, I’m pulling out yet another card trick here.  So, a lot of card tricks, but really well-organized.  This one is Mysterious Mind Power.  So, it’s the same cards, and in this one…I guess I shouldn’t reveal too much.  Oh wow, but it’s just one, two, three, four, five cards.  They’re all suited cards, and no…at least for me, no clue how it’d work.

 

I don’t see any way to tell these cards apart, but I mean, that’s not…that doesn’t mean I know anything.  I’m just looking at the backs of them to see, and I don’t see any differences, but they may be subtle differences or there might be something else to them.  That’s cool.  I really…I’m deceived by even how to deceive someone with this illusion.  I mean, that’s cool.  That’s some serious trickery.  Okay, so, this bag is really…this bag kinda looks a little bit like a backpack someone would have on their way to Pre-K.  Like, it’s cute.  I don’t…wouldn’t associate it with street magic.  I’d say well, that’s a cute bag your son has.  So, I don’t know.  But that’s not a insult or anything.  I just…when I picked it up, I said that’s a cute little bag there, young…Little Andy.  Okay, oh boy, cool.

 

So, I reached in, I got a key, an old-fashioned key like you’d find in a old-fashioned house.  I don’t think I’ve seen any old-fashioned locks, but it has…it’s like one of those brass keys.  This one is silver.  It’s definitely got some substance to it.  A oval handle, then the long thing, then a nub, and then the key part with four branches.  But yeah, it’s a key.  What can I say?  I don’t know if it’s one of those keys that opens every door.  I kinda doubt it ‘cause if it is, it’d be the best investment I’ve ever made in my life.  Okay, here we go; I’m digging to the bottom here.  I won’t make any jingles, but this is a jingle-jangler.  It’s a chain and…interesting.  So, it almost looks like this…it’s a lighter material than you’d make a dog collar out of, but it has a ring at one end and then a ring…what do you call…what are these called?  Links, right?

 

One, two, three links down, there’s another ring, and then at the other end of the chain, there’s nothing.  So, it’s just like a chain with two rings.  So, interesting.  I don’t know what you’d do with it.  I mean, definitely a illusion.  I don’t see any…I’m giving it a little tug.  Oh wait, one link…we have one interesting thing.  Let me look a little deeper, here.  Okay, I tried not to jingle, and so, I thought one of the links was caught, but I thought it was maybe some sort of secret magnet ring, but it’s not.  I’m pulling on the rings, I’m pulling on the chain, and I’m not seeing anything.  Let me see if I can…like it’s one of those dancing ring…?  No.  The other ring is secure, so if the magician was asking me to check it, I’d say everything looks secure.

 

Okay, though I do see a little bit of possible trickery in the rings where you could hold the ring…so maybe these rings are detachable?  I’m not sure, though.  Could just be part of the manufacturing process.  Like, how do you get a ring on a thing anyway, right?  Okay, going to the bottom of the bag.  Oh, we got something else here.  We got a broken rubber band.  That probably was holding together the cards or something, and then a lock.  Okay, so this is a little, tiny padlock.  It has MM on it.  It definitely is too small for that big key.  It is literally a half-inch.  It might work with the…I assume…I guess I shouldn’t assume with magic, but that…it’s unlocked.  I haven’t seen any keys, but it goes with that chain.  Let’s see what else I can find in here.

 

Okay, I got another piece…we got some money, some loose money, and then incredible, instant money.  Okay, these ones have a little trick to them, so I don’t want to reveal them, but I don’t know what the trick is.  Again, organized very well.  Then this loose money probably fell out of something, but it…this one is…also, those are all tens.  Some are complete tens and some are illusionary tens.  Some more money tricks…this one is a plastic bag with one piece of felt in there.  Don’t know what that does, but probably magical.  Then I just…ooh, cool; okay, so there’s…I got two things here.  I got…oh, that was what one of the rubber bands was for that broke.  But one of them is another rectangle, black rectangle, with a blue rectangle on it.  That one has…this one has one rounded edge and one flat edge.

 

It goes with those other two rectangles.  Then I have a piece of plastic with what should be four rubber bands around the…it’s a rectangle but it’s two pieces of clear plastic and then in-between the two pieces of clear plastic is another rectangle with a big circle in it that’s orange.  Then there should be four rubber bands holding the two pieces of plastic over the other thing, so I don’t know if this is one of those things where you stick something through broken glass or what.  I think that was one of the tricks I could do, is when you could stick your…what is that thing called?  Magic wand through something.  But this…there’s no…I don’t know if…here’s the thing; in street magic, can you have a magic wand?  I don’t know.

 

Okay, and then there’s a little bag with a question mark on it like the Riddler might have, a black…small, black bag about three inches by one inch with a yellow question mark on it.  Maybe that ball goes in there?  This one is the most curious thing, and I’m…it…and I think it’s just…I think it’s fake.  It says…it’s like some sort of gag.  It has to do with those…flying friend trick, and it says that it has…so, I don’t know.  That must be something.  It says store in a cold environment to prevent them flying around.  Let’s see what else we got here.  I think that was it.  That’s all the magic tricks there.  Perfect, so we got through it all.  Yeah, so that’s Marty’s Magic…Street Magic Bag or whatever it’s called; Mind-Blowing Tricks.  So, you could check in with me and see did I read the instructions?  Maybe I give it to my daughter.

 

I don’t know if she’s into magic.  Maybe I learn one trick for patrons.  I don’t know.  So, we’ll have to see how it goes, but thanks, and I hope the one trick I’m good at, which is keeping you company and taking your mind off of stuff is working.  It’s not a trick though, really.  It is misdirection, so I guess I do use misdirection.  I’m trying to make you listen to me and my foibles.  So, there’s another episode you could queue up right now if you need some more…I’m misdirected by misdirection.  Goodnight, everybody.

 

[END OF RECORDING]

(Transcribed by Leah Hervoly)