Desert Island Tricks

A great trick hits harder when the audience already cares. That’s the heartbeat of this conversation with creator and worker Jon Allen, where we unpack eight routines he’d take to a desert island and the principles that make them land: meaningful framing, suspense over flash, and full-circle reveals. We start with Silent Treatment, a cinematic cold open that resolves like a twist ending, then move...

What if the strongest magic in your set isn’t the flashiest or the fastest to reset, but the piece that shines where you actually perform. Coffee shops, classrooms, living rooms? We sit down with hobbyist magician and primary school teacher Elliott Hodges to explore eight effects that prove context and clarity beat pocket space every time. Elliott opens with Ambitious Jazz, a tight packet routine...

Stranded for two years with a snooker table and a legendary list, Liam Montier finally gets a rescue and uses it to rethink everything.  We revisit his original Desert Island picks and watch half of them evolve: Dynamic Coins gives way to Peter Kane’s Variant, Psycho Dice upgrades to Steve Cook’s The Gamble, Twilight Angels steps aside for Stephen Tucker’s Alpha to Omega, and John Bannon’s Royal S...

This week we flipped the format and put our host in the hot seat to reveal a set that can carry an entire career: intimate close‑up, parlour storytelling, and full‑blown stage moments that stick. The choices are surprising, practical, and deeply audience‑first, from Richard Sanders’ Identity, retooled to fit holiday crowds, to ProMystic’s MD Mini and Inception, a duo that turns mind reading into a...

Join us with today’s guest, creator and curator Mark Elsdon, who champions routines that pair ruthless clarity with stories that belong to the audience. We start where confidence meets courage: Timon Krause’s ‘Which Hand’, a method strong enough to fool Penn & Teller without ‘outs’. From there, we follow Mark’s guiding idea, call them “trips,” not “tricks”, because the goal is to shift someone...

Did you know only one third of people who have listened to Derren Brown’s first episode have actually listened to his second half?  We’ve stitched Derren Brown’s most-listened-to conversation into one seamless, ad-free cut and let the craft speak. Across two years of touring, decades of creating, and countless experiments with audience psychology, Derren lays out eight pieces that still earn their...

Three objects vanish in full view, a phone, a ring, a driver’s license and hours later a sealed box an audience member has guarded all night reveals them all. That’s the finale Luke Oseland built to feel like a live heist, and it says everything about his new approach: relentless clarity, stacked moments, and visuals that travel across any crowd.    We sit down with Luke to trace his pivot from pu...

The motorbike appears four feet from the front row. A lady floats just beyond the lip of the stage. That proximity rewires what audiences believe about illusion and it’s exactly where Harry DeCruz loves to live: smiling, present, and letting pure astonishment carry the room. We dive into Harry’s journey from creative consultant to centre-stage performer, drawing on years with Derren Brown, Dynamo,...

What if the strongest magic isn’t about flashy props, but about influence, structure, and respect for your audience? We sit down with magician Ben Sidwell to map an eight-trick card set that’s lean on gimmicks and heavy on intention, designed to scale from a noisy bar to an intimate parlour room without losing clarity or impact. Ben opens with influence-forward thinking, why “Anything” by Ben Will...

A crushed can that heals, a coin that melts through metal, dinner pulled from a menu, and water that keeps turning into wine, this is the kind of night Beau Cremer builds from everyday objects. We invited Beau to share his desert‑island tricks and the result is a playful, punchy roadmap for close‑up magic that lasts beyond one performance. No glitter boxes. No over-talking. Just believable items d...

What survives when you strip magic down to its strongest effects? We sit with creator-performer Steve Gore, known for Magic Castle highlights, family stage charisma, and a string of clever releases, to unpack eight routines that earn their spot in a working case and the stories that prove why. From a twin-deck Invisible Deck with a visual box appearance to a sweet, romantic handling of Gypsy Threa...

A spirit pressed the bedsheets. A duvet peeled back on its own. And a mummified fairy hoax fooled the world. We sit down with artist and prop-maker Dan Baines to explore how subtle methods and rich storytelling turn haunted curios into unforgettable theatre. From forensics in London to Lebanon Circle’s museum-quality creations for BBC, Warner Brothers, and major exhibitions, Dan shares the craft c...

A quiet moment in an airport turns unforgettable: Keith Barry shares how a simple card change became a first clear memory for a child recovering from eye cancer and why that reminder of wonder still guides the way he builds every routine. From there, we dig into the material he trusts most, the frameworks that make it bulletproof, and the choices that turn effects into experiences people carry for...

A lot of magicians are taught to copy the script, dress the part, and never take off their shoe. Ben Williams did the opposite and that’s where the magic got good. We sit down with Ben to map the journey from shop counter to full-time pro, and how ditching ego, reading people, and letting effects breathe turned solid tricks into lasting moments. We walk through the eight workers he’d take to a des...

The work is the point. That’s the pulse of this candid, wide-ranging session with R. Paul Wilson, creator, consultant, and the mind behind The Real Hustle, where we dig into what actually makes magic land: clear effects, honest timing, and an audience that edits your choices in real time. We open with a hard truth: there are no shortcuts. From Vernon’s Triumph to cups and balls, Paul shows how ite...

A live show opens with robots, kids, and pure energy, then the control room realises ten full minutes aired with no sound. What happens next says everything about a presenter who helps to keep everything flowing and use his incredibly personable persona to make a disaster feel like it barely even happened. That’s our entry point into a fast, generous conversation with Northern Irish magician and B...

What happens when the universe sends you a sign? For Christopher Taylor, it came in the form of a prisoner's profound question and a late-night phone call from David Copperfield on the very same day his wife encouraged him to pursue magic full-time. In this captivating episode, Christopher shares his remarkable journey from prison guard to classroom teacher to pioneering creator of electronic...

Card magic legend John Carey takes us on a fascinating journey through the eight tricks that defined his remarkable career, from the streets of London to teaching in 26 countries worldwide.     John's selections reveal the essence of powerful, practical magic. The Biddle Trick, with its multiple magical moments in a single effect. Triumph, where chaos transforms into perfect order except for...

What if everything you thought about magic was missing the point entirely? Prolific creator James Brown shatters conventional wisdom about magical performance, revealing that the true essence of magic isn't found in secrets, techniques, or special abilities, but in the powerful human connections we create.    James' journey into magic wasn't the traditional path. Without childhood e...

This week we welcome Marvin Berglas, President of The Magic Circle and the creative force behind Marvin's Magic, as he shares the extraordinary journey that shaped his legendary career. Marvin's story begins with a powerful lesson in resilience, when a Harrods buyer dismissively tossed his product aside calling it "that old stinker," he responded not with defeat but determinati...

Nikolas Mavresis, one of magic's most inventive mentalism creators, opens up about the effects that shaped his journey from magic skeptic to prolific innovator. This conversation reveals the fascinating truth behind his creative process and how he approaches method selection. "You have to put yourself in the spectator's shoes and think like laymen," Nikolas explains, pinpointin...

Ever wondered what happens when a car vanish illusion goes wrong hours before filming? Or how swallowing needles helped a struggling magician pay his rent before television fame? Ben Hanlin pulls back the curtain on these stories and more in this incredible episode. The celebrated British magician, known for ITV's "Tricked" and Discovery's "Breaking Magic," reveals th...

Step into the magical world of Wayne McEwan, New Zealand's premier children's entertainer and versatile performer who has earned both the Lifetime Achievement Award from Magic New Zealand and Children's Entertainer of the Year honours from the Variety Artist Club of New Zealand.    Wayne takes us on a captivating journey through his desert island magic selections, beginning with &qu...

When magic meets craftsmanship, something special happens. Tony Antoniou embodies this intersection as both a lifetime Magic Circle member and the creative force behind The Mind Hacker, crafting exquisite leather goods that expand the use of popular effects from post-it pads to ProMystic effects. His selections paint a fascinating portrait of his evolution from close-up performer to mentalist, wit...

What does a magician do when a spectator wants to read their mind instead of having their own mind read? In a delightful twist shared by Welsh mentalist Rich Relish, he decided to play along, and was shocked when the spectator correctly divined his drawing of a house, leaping into the air with excitement while the wedding photographer captured the perfect moment. This natural, unexpected moment of...