Discourse in Magic

New year, new magic! To ring in the new year, Jonah sits down with Ben Train, Chris Mayhew, and Jacque Swan to discuss their magic highlights and lowlights from 2018, and what they plan to change for the upcoming year. Contest Winner Jonah would like to thank everyone who entered the contest. With 614 individuals who entered the contest, and a total of 7,271 total entries, you have made this the l...

Pipo Villanueva joins Jonah for episode 143 to discuss adding impact to your magic. Pipo is a magician from Spain who has performed at the Magic Castle and is known for performing impactful effects. Pipo started fairly late in magic. In his mid-twenties, he became frustrated with music and changed course to pursue magic. He had always worked with his hands and needed a creative outlet that would a...

Episode 142 is a new take on the catch-up episodes. In the first half, Jonah is addressing a topic in the magic community which has been a part of many recent discussions: Magic exposure online. In the second half, he sits down with his writer and editor, Jacque Swan, to discuss magic in Toronto and behind the scenes of the podcast. Part 1 Exposure Online Discourse in Magic has always vouched for...

After several recommendations, Joe Diamond finally sits down with Jonah for episode 141 to discuss ritualistic magic, believability, and engaging your audience. Joe is a mentalist based in Illinois who delves into the weird side of life through his magic. He has headlined at the Chicago Magic Lounge, performed alongside David Parr, and hosts a weekly show called The 13th Hour. Joe’s introduction t...

Jonah sits down with Zivi Kivi for episode 140 to talk the business of performing. Zivi is not only a children’s entertainer, but he operates several podcasts like the Balloon Artist Podcast, Generous Podcast, and the Magician Business Podcast while also instructing with the Kids Entertainer Academy.   Zivi’s interest in magic started while he working in Japan as a software developer sent over fro...

This week, Jonah sits down with Ondřej Pšenička to discuss creating magic, Fool Us, and the importance of community. Ondřej is an award-winning magician who has performed at the Magic Castle, on Penn & Teller, and is the creator of the Butterfly Deck. Ondřej doesn’t really have a story about how he got into magic, it was always just an interest.  With the help of his mom, he was able to find a...

It’s a solo episode for 138 as Jonah sits down to catch you up on his trip to Austin, where he’s at with his magic and new ideas for the podcast. Austin, Texas Jonah recently traveled to Austin, Texas to perform a private show for a group of online marketers. While there, he had the opportunity to listen to their expertise in marketing while being able to share his knowledge of performing. One of...

Magic podcast hosts collide this episode as Carisa Hendrix, co-host of Shezam, sits down with Jonah to discuss performance, women in magic, cultural theory, and “It Factor.” Carisa is an award-winning magician who brings her background in visual arts and sideshow to her magic. Carisa’s reason for getting into magic is a complex one, but she can trace the root of her inspiration b...

Musician-turned-magician Jonathan Friedman joins Jonah this week to discuss combining outside passions with your magic and how magic has changed over the years. Jonathan is the best selling author of The 80’s Called…They Want Their Magic Book Back Vol. One and The Magic of Jonathan Friedman: The Musical. Jonathan was first introduced to magic at the age of six when his father showed him a fe...

This week, Jonah finally sits down with Andi Gladwin—co-founder of Vanishing Inc.—to discuss the business of magic, publishing magic, and how to manage your time. Andi has also appeared on Fool Us and The Next Great Magician where he performed his Man in a Balloon act.  Andi never planned to be a full-time magician. Unlike his magician friends, Andi left university to take on a job with a web host...

It’s a short episode this week with Jonah talking about the state of the podcast, the Banksy painting fiasco, and the Toronto Magic Company. The Banksy Painting Referencing David Parr’s episode, Jonah relates the shredding of the Banksy painting to David’s idea of a narrative allowing you to get away with a method. This comparison was sparked by an article that attempts to determine if the paintin...

With his passion shifting away from magic, Tyler says goodbye to the magic community and to Discourse in Magic in episode 133. Over the course of two hours, Tyler and Jonah discuss why he has decided to leave while reminiscing about their time working on the podcast.  The Reasons Behind his Departure Tyler never planned to become a professional magician. He originally got into magic as a way to ge...

Known for his appearance on Fool Us, David Parr joins Tyler and Jonah. Bringing his theatrical background to magic this episode, David discusses the value of live theatre, the power of storytelling and Fool Us. David received a magic set when he was younger, and, once he learned all its tricks, needed to know more. His studies led him to the local library and magic store. Soon after, he was perfor...

Harapan Ong joins Tyler and Jonah this week to discuss Instagram magic, developing your art, and the public’s exposure to magic. While Harapan is not a full-time magician, you can find him performing from and reviewing magic books on his Instagram show, Fully Booked . Growing up in Singapore, Harapan had a very limited exposure to magic. His intro to magic began after seeing David Copperfield perf...

This week, Tyler and Jonah sit down to discuss their past month’s projects, advertising, their views on ethics in magic and Shin Lim.  Catching Up Tyler has continued with his studies into media creation. His focus has primarily been on video production, and he is looking to branch out his video into magic related areas. Jonah’s month was full of magic between his show at Dave and Buster’s startin...

We are very excited to have Axel Hecklau join us. He is an  award-winning magician , taking second place for parlour magic at the 2018 FISM World Championship, who brings his unique insight to improving existing methods this episode. Axel took up magic when he was 12 years old after deciding he wanted to perform a magic show for his grandpa’s birthday. Alongside a group of young magicians and the...

We start episode 127 by catching up with Tyler and Jonah. While Tyler hasn’t been performing much practical magic, he has been developing his video and editing skills. Meanwhile, Jonah’s month was steeped with magic. He recently finished his summer tour and had the chance to visit L.A. to perform some intimate closeup shows. Jonah also had the chance to visit the Magic Castle where he saw Laura Lo...

Episode 126 is with Slight of Hand magician Karl Hein who is known for WOWing audiences with amazing and original magic and routines. Jonah has seen him perform both at the Magic Castle, and at a Toronto Magic Company show he produced in Toronto. Karl started in magic at an early age, learning and performing tricks first from a Disney Magic book. Once he started buying tricks from a local magic sh...

Today’s monthly episode is a 1 am Q&A Episode, with Discourse in Magic: Nights. There was a lot of questions this time, mostly from the mailing list, sorry if they didn’t get to your question. Get on the Newsletter by clicking here , to be in contact with Jonah and get your questions answered next time In this episode they talk about the state of magic, their favourite magicians, incredi...

David Peck is a Toronto magician who specialized in manipulation. He is now a speaker, a writer, and a mover and a shaker in the world of social change. You may recognize him from his Face 2 Face podcast . His introduction into magic involved being astounded by strange tricks from the community and his uncle. He became extremely intrigued by it all and once he received his first magic kit from his...

Kayla Drescher is a … magician, who recently performed on  Pen & Teller’s “Fool Us” and has a new podcast, called Shezam chatting all about women in magic. She got into magic by accidentally walking into a magic shop with her dad, became very curious at what was happening and started from there. She then started to take lessons and joined a magic society, headlining her first magic show...

It’s time for the Discourse in Magic boys to have their monthly get together episode, but this time they’re separated as Jonah has been touring Ontario and Quebec. Tyler, meanwhile, has been shooting more videos for his work and Instagram, while also watching other magician’s live performances. Some magicians that they’re both excited about is Shin Lim with his spot on America’s Got Talent and Jay...

Hypnosis, Business, and Producing shows Dave Curran is a Ontario based Hypnotist known for his Las Vegas-like shows. He’s a friend of Jonah’s (who’s seen his shows over 200 times). Dave was horrible with magic at first, but after buying and practising magic-shop tricks at the age of 11, he begun doing close-up and walk-around shows. He then took improv lessons and, after seeing Terry Stokes live,...

Jason Ladanye is a world-class sleight of hand magician and card cheating expert, known for his latest book “Confident Deceptions”, his studies with Darwin Ortiz and knowledge in the major topics of theory, practise, scripting and tension made him a great addition to the podcast. Jason first started magic when he was 5 through his brother showing him a simple magic trick and his parents giving him...

In this minisode (mini-episode) Jonah records a short episode with his advice to the responses he received to his regular email asking the Discourse in Magic audience one special question. He asked our 1000 person email newsletter: “What do you want to learn”, and received dozens of answers that landed in two categories. How do I put together my own routine out of a trick? How do I sta...