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Desert Island Tricks: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Alakazam Magic
Each week, host Jamie Daws invites one of the biggest guests in the world of magic to maroon themselves on the Alakazam Magic desert island. They are allowed to take with them 8 tricks, 1 book, 1 banishment and 1 non magic item that they use for magic! They even get a welcome package with a deck of card inside! We discuss their 'can't live without' lists and why those items were chosen.
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- 3 days ago1h 48m
SOS: Oliver Meech
Magic gets stale when we keep reaching for the same props, the same references and the same “safe” structures. So we invited Oliver Meach back for a Desert Island Tricks SOS and he did something no one else has done yet: he replaced every trick on his original list with a completely new set, chosen to showcase how he thinks about modern card magic, close-up mentalism, and audience-first interaction. We talk through effects built on bold starting conditions like performing with your back turn...
- 1 weeks ago1h 32m
Michael J Fitch
He’s performed for Queen Elizabeth II, he’s a resident magician in Gordon Ramsay restaurants and he’s Vice President of The Magic Circle, but he still geeks out over the same question every working magician wrestles with: what actually works when you’re in the trenches night after night? We sit down with Michael J. Fitch for a wide-ranging, laugh-out-loud conversation that turns into a practical guide to building a set that plays for real people, not just magicians. Michael breaks down ...
- 2 weeks ago1h 17m
Chris Funk
A card rises to the top of the deck because a violin is playing and somehow that makes perfect sense by the time it’s over. That’s the kind of “how is this even happening?” thinking we love and it’s why we’ve wanted Chris Funk on for years. Chris is a touring magician known for Redefining Wonder and for bringing music into modern stage magic in a way that feels lived-in, not bolted on. We talk through his desert island list of essential routines, from Bill Abbott’s Five Card Box as a killer o...
- 3 weeks ago20 min
Stranded with a Stranger: Luke Murray
Luke Murray sends in his desert island list and it is an incredible working mentalism set: strong openings, clean mid-show impossibilities and a closer with competition-winning impact. We also owe Luke a bit of an apology for the “hidden prize” runaround, so yes, that gets addressed too. We dig into why Andy Nyman’s “Dead of Night” is such a compelling multi-phase routine, then head deeper into practical mind reading with Banachek’s “Loco Logo” and Peter Nardi’s “ES Perfect” for that de...
- Aug 21, 20261h 33m
Kieron Johnson
The easiest way to spot a real magician isn’t the trick, it’s what happens when something goes wrong. Kieron Johnson joins us to talk about the skills you can’t fake: audience management, timing, trust and the grind of making strong material work night after night. Kieron has been at the top of modern close-up creation for years and he’s also performing in the West End production “Come Alive, The Greatest Showman,” where he runs multiple sets across parlour, stage, close-up and an eye-melting...
- Aug 14, 202658 min
SOS: Wayne Goodman
A “best of” list is easy to make. A forever list is brutal. Wayne Goodman comes back to his desert island lineup and we pressure-test it like working pros: what still plays, what still feels honest and what you’d trust when the room is unpredictable. The surprise is how little he changes, because the choices are built on strong magic principles: clear visuals, spectator-in-the-hand moments and props that earn their keep night after night. If you care about close-up magic, kids show material a...
- Aug 7, 20261h 38m
John Bulleid
An elephant stands on an empty stage. No cover, no curtain, nowhere to hide. Then a flash of light and it’s gone. That’s where we start with John Bulled, internationally acclaimed illusion designer and magic consultant whose work has shaped major West End productions, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. We get into the real mechanics of theatrical illusion design: why a vanish can fail by a quarter second, how you hide method inside the language of a set and w...
- Jul 31, 202621 min
Stranded with a Stranger: Tom Rolfe
A deck of cards turns into dental floss, a salt cellar melts through a table and a “Russian roulette” style routine somehow becomes a smart lesson in character and control. Tom Rolfe sends in one of the most varied Stranded with a Stranger lists we’ve had and every choice points to the same goal: close-up magic that feels like it could happen anywhere, with props that look normal until the moment they don’t. We dig into why Gypsy Thread hits so hard when it’s framed as an everyda...
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About Desert Island Tricks
Each week, host Jamie Daws invites one of the biggest guests in the world of magic to maroon themselves on the Alakazam Magic desert island. They are allowed to take with them 8 tricks, 1 book, 1 banishment and 1 non magic item that they use for magic! They even get a welcome package with a deck of card inside! We discuss their 'can't live without' lists and why those items were chosen.
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