[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, I'm Leah Orleans and we are talking with Dr. Todd about Mystify Magic Festival.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: We have with us Leah Orleans, who is a fantastic performer and she is in charge of the Mystify Magic Festival and we are going to talk all about it. Thank you for coming on and talking with us Today, Leah.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hi, Dr. Todd. Happy to be here.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Yay. I'm gonna get right into it. I love talking about people's origin stories. So I like to say if I'm asking someone, who is Leah Orleans? Who, who is she?
It's getting real deep in here.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: And I think that that answer, like most people, that answer depends on who you're asking and why. Right.
From a professional sense, I am a full time circus performer. I am an entertainment marketer. I am a comedy writer. I am an experience crafter. I think of what I do as crafting a engaging, interactive experience for my audience from the moment they step into the space, into the theater, into the festival, through the show, through the pre show slideshow, through the programs that they see, through the signage that they look at. All of that is a huge part of what I do.
On a personal level, I am a queer, diabetic, neurodivergent nerd. I am a overworker, over thinker, overdoer. I love having too many things on my plate at any given time. I travel about 10 months out of the year. I am on the road all the time. I drive over 35,000 miles a year. And I really love what I do. I have a huge passion for people, so I like that. That probably is a quick little Instagram.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: That's fantastic. Yeah. And I got a lot of that from watching your Instagram page. You have a fantastic Internet presence and I feel like you really do put it out there and you feel really honest. I feel like I'm getting to see you.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: No, it's true though. I do write from the heart and I write from what I know, and. And that is often what does the best online as well. The authenticity definitely usually gets the hits and performs really well. And I love social media too, because it does. You know, you do get throttled by what does well. So the people that end up seeing the most videos that do well are the ones that usually come out of a very real place, whether that's an improv or some crowd work or something fun.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: Does your background as a marketer help you with gaining followers?
[00:02:48] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. It's all marketing, for sure. You know, my Instagram page is the modern version of a brochure. It's it's what people and bookers and fans look at to get a summary of what I do. Yeah. So I went to school for entertainment marketing, and I am still constantly in school for entertainment marketing. I love it. I keep taking classes.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: That's amazing.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of fun and it allows me to keep trying and keeping up to date with the ever changing landscape.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Is there, like, a specific niche that you really like to market for or are you just anything entertainment wise? What's your realm?
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good question.
So I have a large amount of what I've done and what I have experience doing is marketing myself and doing my own show. So I've. I've been through two different types of shows that I've performed over the past 10 years, and I've done a lot of marketing for both of them. But I also do freelance work for other acts and brands and companies. I'm currently marketing manager of a circus school in Utah right now that I've been working with, and it's a circus studio that just opened up called Vaudeville Underground, and they're really great, and I've been working with them to help them get students in.
And even though that's not entertainment, it's a brick and mortar studio.
We are marketing that. It's fun. It's fun to go hang upside down after your 9 to 5 job for an hour. It's fun to feel a little scared and a little in your body and trying new things.
So I think I like marketing Joy more than, like a useful product, like a, you know, a toothbrush or something that. That might be functional, although that's not terribly outside of the range of what I'm comfortable doing. I just tend to go towards recreation.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: Okay. And that's in Salt Lake City. Right. So my wife's originally from Utah, and Salt Lake City is like one of the biggest LGBTQ LGBT communities. Right. And growing in the nation.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Yes, we actually. So the owner of the studio and I are good friends and. And they're also queer and heavily in the. That this community. And it is such a need out there. The counterculture is so strong, and so many of our customers and our clients are, you know, ex Mormon or were raised in a space where they weren't allowed to embrace their sexuality at all. And they've escaped that and they're finding themselves and it's a really, really, really queer, positive studio. And it's such a cool angle to be able to market from.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: And it's working. It's working so well. They just opened in over the summer and so it's brand new and I just got a text today that they're like, oh, there's like seven new people in the door like every day there's just new people coming in and it' been doing all of it virtually. I haven't even seen the space yet. So I'm really excited to. I'll be there in next month.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: Yeah, helping you learn to stretch and deconstruct all at the same time. It's a. Yeah, that sounds great.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: Well, sound bite.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: I. Yeah, well, we're going for sound bites. We want to. We want to. Or you are the marketer. You're going to market the heck out of this. Mystify. We're going to. We're going to get everybody in that.
That's awesome.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: I have a stack of posts. These are all just sound bites for podcast interviews. I'm not even joking. It's. This is.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: We're only on episode like six, so there's a lot. There's a big ways to go. But the. After the first episode, I was number eight in Sweden under performing for some reason. And I think it's because one person listened to it.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Well, you could. I could just grab a. I could pick a sound bite, any sound bite and just say it.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: I'd love that.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: But.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: So how did you get into circus performing?
[00:06:35] Speaker A: I started circus when I was about 12. There was a youth circus program that I started to do kind of an after school circus for youth kids. Unicycling and juggling and contortion. And I really loved it and I took to it really quickly. And I love gymnastics, but I hated competing and I loved that circus was kind of this middle ground where you don't have to be judged for doing something wrong, but you get to work really hard. I was always really physical, tumbling around and doing weird things with my body. I'm really small, I'm about five feet tall. Never really been more than 100 pounds. So I, I took to it really quickly and I also had really good coaches. And that's such a huge element. Right? Like, if you have a good coach, a good mentor, it's easy to succeed in your field. And I had a fantastic first coach and Sylvia D'Stasi over at Actors Gymnasium in Chicago and amazing me through the process. And then I went from there into more professional fields. Went to circus school in San Francisco for three years and in Canada for a little bit of time.
I was actually, I was in San Francisco for one Year and then I went to Canada after that. But it was, it was kind of three years of circuit school and then I went forth and started touring.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: Wow, that's amazing. Keeping my gosh. Yeah. You know, but my dad always told me something. Everybody's shorter than you in a dental chair.
So I became a jet. I became a dentist.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: That's funny.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: It's the height thing. So it's. Understand how a magician finds a place to work. You know, you find venues, you do standup shows. How do you market yourself as a circus performer and how do you get find places to perform?
[00:08:17] Speaker A: Sure, I perform primarily. So I guess this is. It's important to give some context. I am not your typical circus performer. Most circus performers perform their five to seven minute act in a larger circus type show. Whether that's like a Ringling Brothers classic circus show, traditional circus, or like a Cirque du Soleil show or a Spiegel tent like raunchy variety show like you see in Las Vegas. That's kind of the classic route, is that you work your butt off to get this amazing five to seven minute routine and that's what you do. And you get a contract, you sign that contract and you're in the show for doing 10 shows a week for six months to a year. And then you find another one. Right. I am a lot closer to a magician in terms of my format. I do a 45 minute long solo show. I perform most of the time. 99% of my shows are the full show. Every once in a while I'll do 15 minutes or 5 minutes somewhere or I'll host or I'll emcee, but most of the time I'm doing my full show. I perform at Renaissance festivals and cruise ships, occasionally colleges and I used to do some military bases as well. So I'm bringing my whole show. We do the show, we pack up the show and we leave.
Similar to a magician. Renaissance festivals are about six months of my year. So if you aren't familiar with the Renaissance Festival, it's an outdoor family fun event. They're open Saturdays and Sundays. Kind of like a music festival type where you're walking around seeing things, there's vendors and food, but instead of like big bands on stages, there's variety acts. So I'll do my show a few times a day, three or four times a day on Saturdays and Sundays. And then I have during the week to rest. So that takes up a very large chunk of my year. I'm really happy in that industry, in that world. I Found a lot of festivals that love me and I love them and it allows me to grow a fan base. So that's kind of how I do it now.
I'm very booked consistently and grateful for that.
So I'm not really looking for work right now, which is kind of cool.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: That's fantastic.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So it allows me to have time to do things like run a magic convention or work on other people's businesses or grow my own side hustles in addition to doing my shows.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Before we get to the Mystify, if you don't mind, I'd like to pivot and talk about the Mystify Magic Festival. And remember that I never been to a magic festival. I do not know what to expect. So I don't know what a regular one is. Versus Mystify. Treat me like I'm a toddler and take me through the process.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, that's really great because it.
That's very. This is a very exciting opportunity to do discuss this from this angle because we are expecting to have one of the largest percentages of our attendees to be people who've never attended a magic festival before or magic convention, which was intentional. That was a goal. And we found that it's. It's kind of time to get a new generation of people in. And that doesn't necessarily mean younger, it just means new.
It's people that haven't been to conventions before. Conventions have kind of become old boys clubs. A lot of them have worked hard to change that and they are working hard to incorporate more diversity in their lineups and to give credit where credit's due. That is, it's working, but I think it needs to work faster. And I think it also, instead of. It's hard to change things that are functional already and these large organizations like IBM, Sam, the conventions that have been going on for a very long time, it's hard to change their systems. I totally get it. Because the conventions are complicated, they're hard to run and. And they're run by mostly middle aged white men, you know, and so there's a perspective that they have. Even, even if they're progressive and they want to see change, there's a perspective they have and there's also a expectation of their attendees. If they look at their demographics already, they probably. Their email list of people that could possibly come to the convention is probably 85% middle aged white men. I would not be surprised. Maybe 65%. 65 to 85%.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: I would guess at least that.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: Right. So like Starting at that. You want to make those people happy, you want to give them something that they want. So it was really difficult for me to think, okay, I want to go into these already established systems and try to change everything. I was like, that sounds like a lot of work. It sounds like less work for me just to start my own, which I don't know if it's less, but it is my path and I get to now do it.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: What inspired you to want to do a magical festival in the first place? Just, just because there isn't one.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: Yes, I attended a, a very large magic convention and that I've attended many years, for many years. And it's a huge convention. And at the end, the closing party, I was sitting next to some of my friends. And if you go to a magic convention, like any convention, you're up all night, you are partying with friends, you are seeing tricks, you are jamming, you are sessioning, you are talking to people you've never met before, you are hanging out with friends you've known for years. It is, it is a party. It's a three to five to seven day party. And so last night, it was the final night, I was like zoinked, exhausted as we all were, you know, running on energy drinks and sheer will and, you know, hotel casino fumes and, and I turned to my friend and I was like, yo, we are at the, one of the biggest magic conventions in the country and I didn't see a single woman on stage.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: This entire time, you know, and there was a few women on stage that presented or hosted, but nobody doing magic.
I was like, this is bullshit. This is, we are. That was, that was two years ago. It was a year and a half ago. I was like, you know, and I, I was so fed up and I was frustrated because I have so many friends who are such talented female magicians and so many friends who are just talented magicians and they're like weird and different, you know, And I was like, all we saw was the same breed of stuff. And it was a great convention, I had a great time, I saw amazing things. But I was like, where's, where's people that look like me? Where's, you know, if I was a young girl coming to this, I would not feel inspired, I would not feel encouraged to keep going. And it's all about, if you want a sound bite, it's all about what we call creating a possibility model.
Post it note right here for you. Visual Creating a possibility model.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: Amazing.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: And that means that you are more Likely to do something if you see someone that looks like you succeeding in that thing.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: Oh, period.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: In any industry, in any concept and as a leader of a space, you want to create a possibility model. You want to say, hey, look at this small black girl doing magic.
Hey, are you a small black girl? You can also do magic, right? Like there's. You can look at that and say, that's me. And that's how we get more of them. That's how we get more different people doing things. And so when all the guys sit around, they go, why? Well, there just aren't that many. There just aren't that many women in magic, buddy. I got a spreadsheet of 200 working female magicians in the world right now.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: They're there, they're there.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: And, and there's going to be more of them if we create more of a possibility model. So this project was all, you know, based in that frustration.
And I turned to my friend and I was like, I should do it. And he's like, you should do it. Because he knows I run events and I've run multi day events before and I've been going to magic conventions since I was five. And I was like, let's like, I know this and I have access to people to help me. And that's the best part. I have a team. Mystify Magic Festival is run by a team of 30 incredible professionals from all over the country. Some of them are professional magicians, some of them run other magic conventions, Some of them are on the board of some of the largest magic organizations in the world. Some of them are not in magic at all. And they run events, giant events all over the place. I have designers and creative directors and showrunners, and as you said, Paige Thompson, our entertainment director and you know, it's all over the place.
And, and those people are helping me put this on. You know, I am. I am just on the top of this very large pyramid of people that are making this possible. And I absolutely couldn't do it without them.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Okay, so that's a lot.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: I just like, I love it at you.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: No, I'm great. And I'm. And it's going to take me a while to digest it.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: But because I am a. Okay. I've got my tickets, I got my hotel.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Good job.
[00:17:36] Speaker B: What, what am I, what am I? What do I do first? Like it's the first day. Walk me through the process so that anyone who's new will be. I love knowing what to expect.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: So absolutely.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: That's really important. And walk me through asking the perfect at the perfect time. So I'm about to release all this information out to the world anyway. If you asked me, I couldn't, I couldn't tell you. But now I can. But, um, so this is a three day convention. Um, it's really two and a half days, but that Monday is allowing you to come in and settle into the hotel and then things begin. Um, so Mystify Magic Festival is March 10th through 12th. It's a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, so we start on Monday. And you can come in at any time on Monday. Check into the hotel. If you're staying with us at the Santa Fe station in Las Vegas and it's a great hotel, really happy about the venue. You can come on in and check into your room and then registration opens at 3pm as well. So you can come get your badge. You'll pick up your badge at registration desk. You'll take your little picture that'll go on your badge so that we have identification and security. And you can enjoy the Mystify Amusement park which is a sensory open experience that's designed by our creative director, Chloe Baldwin. And it takes you through a whole bunch of fun. It's kind of a Meow Wolf style exhibit that we're taking a little risk. We're gonna see how it goes.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: Meow Wolf?
[00:19:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it's that kind of energy. Are you familiar with Meow Wolf?
[00:19:11] Speaker B: Remember Toddler?
[00:19:12] Speaker A: It's like a. It's like an adult amusement park without rides. It's kind of somewhere between an acid trip and like a playground kind of sensory experience.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: I love it already. You said some of my favorite things in one sentence.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: And then our dealer's room will also be open so you can go and see our dealers which is a room full of vendors from all over the world. We have magic sellers and vendors from India, from Las Vegas local. We have Penguin Magic, one of the largest magic distributors in the world. We have Lupe Nielsen bringing a whole bunch of incredible built woodwork and vintage posters. And we also have the Mystify Mini museum which is a science fair like exhibit of a whole bunch of different exhibits and studies from all over the world as well. And that's curated by Abby Siegel over in Chicago. And she did a great job at pulling in some really interesting poster exhibits that'll be available all convention lot. So that's Monday during the day and then in the evening at 8:30 will be the curtain rises. Our first show. It's a big gala show down in our showroom, a 500 seat, beautiful showroom that is like full tech, full lighting. And that will be where our main shows are. So that will be our Monday, Monday show. And that show is going to be filled with fun, surprises and incredible acts.
And Rachel Wax will be hosting that show. So it's going to be a lot of fun.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: She's great, funny friend of the show, Rachel Wax.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Love her.
And then you'll sleep maybe, if that's something that you feel like doing. Not necessary. And then on Tuesday, we begin our lectures and sessions. So this festival is a little different than others. Some magic festivals and conventions have one thing going on at a time. So everyone kind of goes to the same room and watches the presentation or the lecture, and then you go to a different one and do the repeat. Or some conventions have multiple rooms with the same lectures going on. So you kind of rotate in groups, but everyone sees the same stuff. For us, we're doing it differently because our demographic, the people that we're expecting to come to this all have very different interests. We have brand new magicians, we have producers, we have directors, we have working professional magicians that have been there forever. We have assistants, we have magic vendors and people that crafters, people are like crafty crafters. People that sew and people that build.
And so we wanted to give a lot of different types of experiences. So I'm just gonna give you a.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Visual aid because, yeah, that'd be amazing.
[00:21:53] Speaker A: Film. So our schedule.
I'm gonna peel this right off my wall. Our schedule looks like this, where people will get smaller versions of these and they'll be posted around so it's color coded. So everything that's happening in the same color happens at the same time. Okay, so this all happens from 10 to 11. This all happens from 11:15 to 12:15. Right. So you can look at the schedule and easily pick. Okay, out of this pink block, this is the thing that interests me. I'm gonna go to this.
And then out of this yellow block, this is the thing that interests me. I'm gonna go to this.
And so you, you can choose what you want to see. Anything with a star on it is a show. Those are our main shows. So this is. This is the full Monday, Tuesday.
This is Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, and then the rest of Wednesday.
So as you can see, there's a ton to do.
There's so much to do. And this is really designed so that you have a smaller group of people in each session so they're more intimate. You get to ask questions you get your voice to be heard. You get a smaller space where you can connect a little deeper than feeling like you're in a sea of people watching one person talk for an hour. You know, we also have like fishbowl conversations and different structured gatherings where people can. Can meet in a different way more than just a basic lecture.
And then there's also on Tuesday night, there's our close up show. And our close up show has a small amount of seating and so it happens four times.
[00:23:35] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: So our close up show will run at 5, 7, 9, and 11. And then also at 10 o'clock will be the something different cabaret, which is kind of a.
It's almost open mic style. Like, come bring your crazy thing. We'll see how it goes. It's going to be a little chaotic. We're going to have variety acts and magicians and people doing weird stuff. And it's hosted by Kiki Uchowi, Ms. Uchowi, who's a drag queen magician out in Vegas.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: It's gonna be nuts. It's gonna be like, that's our wild card show.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: And then all Wednesday there's more lectures and sessions. And then Wednesday night has a closing gala show that's sponsored by the Academy of Magical Arts.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: Okay. That gala show.
So I have it for later. That gala show, it's cool. Okay, that's fine. I can stay there.
The closing night gala show, because it's sponsored by the Academy of Magical Arts where if you've ever been to the Magic Castle, you know they're very strict dress code of black tie only.
Our dress code for that evening will be black tie formal or pajamas.
So if you want to show up in pajamas or a onesie or have a crazy PJ party, do it. Let's go. That's if you want to combine it and wear like a onesie with a tie. I support that too.
So it's gonna be silly, you know, and that's part of this energy is that a lot of magic conventions are really serious. Everybody's like posturing for each other. Everyone's trying to like network and connect and like one up each other. And like, maybe if we just all have some fun, then we're gonna connect personally and then maybe that can lead to more work because we actually like each other.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: So was it, was it pretty easy to book people that wanted to be in the convention?
[00:25:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it.
[00:25:29] Speaker B: Was it hard?
[00:25:31] Speaker A: No, it wasn't hard.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: Your eyes betray you.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: No, it wasn't. I'm laughing because of, of how Easy. It was because. And, and I. That extends to getting this made, period. I was shocked at how, I mean, okay, it was a ton of work. It wasn't a lot of work. I've been working my butt off at least 30 hours a week for a year and a half on this.
[00:25:54] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:25:54] Speaker A: It has been non stop. On top of touring, on top of everything else I've been doing, this is the hardest I've ever worked on any project. But it wasn't hard to get people to say, yes, I want to help.
And that's been amazing.
And it, you know, barring scheduling, I got a yes from almost everybody. And that's amazing too, because in a first year convention, you know, I'm not, I'm not working on a ginormous budget. I'm piecing this together as much as I can. And everybody has been really, really generous with their time and energy, offering to help and pay for things and stipend here and there. And I want to do everything I can to support all of our entertainers and anyone that's working on this project. But in its first year, I can't do that by throwing money at everyone, you know, and they really, everyone's been really, really grateful and understanding of that.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: So is there anyone that you were actually very surprised that you were able to pull?
[00:26:54] Speaker A: Juliana Chen. We got Juliana Chen. That was cool. And Diana Zimmerman also was a big name. I'm just getting to know her more recently and she's been extremely helpful and brilliant, but I wasn't expecting for her to offer to lecture. That was very cool. And Faye Presto as well was a huge name that we were able to swing from England and she's really excited. I think there's a lot of women in this project who are gonna, who finally feel comfortable not being the token woman at a convention. There is no token woman.
You know. There isn't. Yeah, it's like, oh, we're just hiring you because you're a woman. No, like, literally the point is that we have as many women as possible. Like, I'm not hiring you because of your gender, I promise. I'm hiring you because you're good and different.
[00:27:43] Speaker B: I saw on the website, it said, a cutting edge solutions for a convention that meets the evolving landscape of entertainment. What does that mean?
[00:27:52] Speaker A: That means that we have a completely digital program.
So along with having the pieces of paper that say, what's happening? You can go. Not yet, but you will be able to go onto our website, select any event, navigate the entire site to see where the Event is what the event description is, link to the person doing the event. So if Anastasia Sen is lecturing on her biohacking, you can go to her complete profile. You can immediately link to her website or her social media page, a specific link of how she wants to be contacted and navigate the entire convention digitally through that site. This has never been done before in depth like this. Wow. It's huge.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: It's like a theme park.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: It is like a theme park. Yeah. It's completely fully developed and I've been working with Rebecca Spector to do that on a program called Notion. So we've created a Notion website for this convention along with QR codes everywhere for a whole bunch of different stuff. We're going to have a ton of media, social media promotion and dropboxes where you can put stuff and find stuff and find pictures and tag people.
It's created for now. Because it's created now. We don't have to reinvent or revamp anything because this is brand new in 2025.
So the amount of technology that we have at our fingertips that we can immediately say, wouldn't this be cool? Wouldn't that be cool? And then we could just do it.
And that's really cool. Trig, do you know Trig Watson at all? He's an incredible tech magician and he's been really helpful on the back end of this too. He's great. T R I G G. He's been a very good friend for a very long time and he's been great in the admin to make this happen.
[00:29:48] Speaker B: Amazing.
What is the size of your team to get this going? Like how big, how many people do you need to run a convention or not run to create it?
[00:29:59] Speaker A: I love my, I love teaming and finding the right people for the job and saying, go, go be free. Go do your job.
So right now I have, I have a team of seven directors. So each director has a department, right. I have our entertainment department and our vendors department and our registration department and like operations back end with Rebecca and Amy and.
And then my tech department, my tech directors, people who handle all of the tech on this.
And then under that team I have like 15 people that are kind of those people's assistants.
So sub, sub those people. But still on my team. And then under that there's like, I mean we, we had 50 people volunteer, like apply for our volunteers coordinator.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: So we have, I'd say we have about 20 active volunteers. And then I know on the event there's gonna be people who are gonna be like how can I help? Like, I've had so many people who've been like, let me know if you need me to stand at the registration booth or stand at the vendor booth or whatever. So I'd say in full, it's probably close to 35 to 40 people. And then, and then we have all of our entertainers, all of our lecturers, some of which are also directors and on our team, and then some of them are not at all. And they're just going to show up and do their great lecture. But as a result, they're still in my spreadsheets, they're still in my databases, I still have their numbers in my phone, you know.
[00:31:29] Speaker B: So do I need to sign up for certain classes in advance or is it I can just pick what I want on that day?
[00:31:36] Speaker A: You can pick what you want at all times, with except the only exception being the Tuesday evening shows. So we have sold out of spaces for guaranteed Close Up Show. So each Close up show can fit 50 people. Once we hit 200 tickets, we said, no more guaranteed Close Up Show. So when you come to registration to pick up your badge, if you have a registration that includes a Close up show ticket, you get to pick your seating right there and say, cool, I want to come to the 7:00 show. And you will get a physical ticket and your name will also be put on a list on our end. Right. And then at seven, at that seven o'clock Close up show, we will let everyone in with tickets first. And then if we have no shows or if we have extra seats, then whoever is standing in line waiting can come in and see.
And then we also have the something different cabaret happening that evening as well that can have unlimited people. So if there's going to be something to see on Tuesday, whether you want to see the Close up show, the Cabaret, or both.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: Is the Close up show going to be the same person or is it going to be multiple people?
[00:32:48] Speaker A: The Close up show is hosted by Jan Rose, my mom from the Chicago Magic Lounge.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: I hear she's amazing.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: She is amazing. The incredible Jan Rose.
She's so incredible that an adjective is actually her first name and it's not mine. That's her intro. She wrote that.
So it's hosted by the incredible Jen Rose and it is featuring Paige Thompson, Alex Hilshy, Abby Siegel and Faye Presto.
So it is an incredible lineup of rock star. It's gonna be so good. The lineup is so strong and they're all so different too. And I'm really, I'm really Interested and excited to see how that works. And we've been working hard with our tech director to create a layout where everyone can really see well. It's raked. It's going to be a pretty strong rake. I hope it's going to be functional in that way. There's some things that we're learning. You know, we're going to figure it out, and we're going to. We're going to definitely do a lot of learning day of and make sure that things are good. But I have enough people on the team to. To have a good amount of checks and balances for that.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: Awesome. What's been your biggest hiccup in this process?
[00:33:56] Speaker A: I think a few things.
There's like, my personal answer, and then there's the, like, technical answer. I think the technical answer is doing what I refer to as, as herding cats. A lot of this job is making sure that people fill out forms on time, give me the right bios and pictures on time. That that information gets. Goes into the right channels through the right people, so it can get to the digital program, so it can get copied into the booklet, so it can go into the website, so it's spelled correctly, so it doesn't. The wrong picture isn't used. Oh, somebody changed their picture. Okay. All of those things have to now be changed. And like, that kind of herding cat system is difficult, especially with this many people and this many members, as many vendors, and making sure every vendor understands. And some vendors are, you know, older and don't really use tech a lot and aren't super technologically advanced, and that is okay. But it's. You kind of hold their hand through Google form a little more than, you know, some of the millennials who, like, fill it out immediately and it's done.
[00:35:05] Speaker B: So, yeah, when you carve cups and balls by hand, you know, after enough years, you just don't. You don't even need a flip phone at that point.
[00:35:12] Speaker A: Right? No, exactly. You get it. So kind of filling out that. And there's a good amount of people that I have worked with a lot, and they know me, and I know their energy. And then there's who I don't know. And so I'm making a first impression by saying, I need you to fill out this form. You know, it's been. It's been three months. I need. I need this information from you yesterday. Like, that's not how I want to make a first impression, you know, So I think that's something that's on my mind a lot. And Then inter, like personally, this project is a very large scale and there are definitely moments. There were more moments in the beginning, I think, where I was feeling scared shitless that this was gonna work because I didn't know if it was gonna work or not in the beginning. And I believed in the cause and I believed in the product and I believed in my ability to execute it, but I couldn't finance this whole thing alone. You know, I signed a very large contract with this hotel before I was able to tell anybody about this. I can't pitch the project to anyone and say, oh, we don't have a venue yet. Like I needed to have assigned venue before I could go to anybody and ask for money or their time or their act. So, you know, I was putting a lot down, way more than I had to, to believe that this could happen.
And you know, luckily within three months it was, I, I had a lot more emotional belief in myself and security that, that I'd be able to do this and not be put on the street, you know.
[00:36:55] Speaker B: It's a huge accomplishment. It's huge.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it is huge. And it's gonna, it's, it's always been this way, but it will continue too, which is, this isn't, this isn't a one time thing. You know, we're making a movement, we're making a, we're building a business, we're building a movement, we're building a relationship, we're building a space that people can trust and come back to and form a relationship with. Mystify the brand. You know, this isn't about me. It's not about Leah, it's. There's another post it note. It's not about you, you know, it's not about me. It's about the future and of diversity in variety arts in general. Not just magic even in a bigger sense. And having a safe space for non men to go where they can go, hey, I can, I can learn here, I can be different here, I can mess up here, I can ask questions here.
[00:37:54] Speaker B: I've got, I've got four kids, three girls. As they get older, I want them to do what they want. I want them to love who they want and I want them to see themselves.
So this is a huge part of that. Having something that they can, they can really be a part of.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: And I make this joke, you know, all the time of like, you know, I want to change the world to where. And this is, this is a joke for comedy, but there's a nugget of truth in it where If. If a man watches a woman do bad magic, I don't want him to think it's because she's a woman. She's just bad at magic.
You know, If a man watches another dude be bad at magic, he's not like, oh, well, it's because he's a man, right? Like, that's not what you think. You go, oh, well, he's just not good at magic. Maybe he's new. Maybe he needs to work on his handling or his delivery. Like, let's have the same level of judgment for people of all genders, please.
[00:38:47] Speaker B: Yeah, let's. Let's judge, everybody.
[00:38:48] Speaker A: This is. This. That sound bite alone is going to get me in so much trouble. Please keep that in context.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: Well.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: Well, it's funny, but it's out of context.
[00:38:59] Speaker B: Is there anything that you think people really should know that are new to festivals?
[00:39:05] Speaker A: Pack comfortably. Pack comfortable clothing. You know, bring cute stuff, too. But bring stuff that you're going to be comfy in because the days are long and you're gonna get tired. And it's more important to be comfortable than it is to be impressive. You know, you want to. You want to be comfortable. You're going to have a better time. Go into the convention with a lot of sleep. Try not to book something ridiculous right before and right after. And a convention come down is so real. I'm on one right now from Magi Fest. I was at Magi Fest last week, which was a great convention. I had so much fun. I barely slept, and I came home and I felt sleepy and depressed and sad and hungry and achy, and that is normal. And I'm gonna let myself feel that way and get the sleep I need and drink a ton of water and know that that feeling is not permanent. And I'll be fine in 48 hours. Right?
[00:40:07] Speaker B: I feel like that a lot, but I call that a weekday dad joke. Sorry I had to throw.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: Sorry about your 9 to 5 job. My condolences.
[00:40:16] Speaker B: Someday we'll work it out.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: Love that.
Yeah, it's going to be crazy and big and wonderful. Great. Cool. So we have some registrations left. It's selling very quickly.
We also have what we're calling evening registration. So if you are a Las Vegas local or you are near Las Vegas and you're interested in something like this, but you don't want to come to all of the days and the sessions, and you just want to catch the shows in the evening. You can buy evening registration, which is half price, and it allows you to come to our opening show, our evening cabaret and our closing show. It's all, all of the shows are included in the evening registration. You can hang out. You can hang out at the bars with us. You can hang out in the convention center with us.
You know, anytime after 6pm You're. You're down to hang. So that's open and we got a ton of those left.
[00:41:14] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:41:14] Speaker A: Yeah, that's gonna be a fun little option.
The biggest thing that I keep coming to, the biggest thesis of this convention, is that opportunities come from people.
Opportunities come from people. And you can be the best magician in the world. And if you don't know the right people, it's gonna be hard for you to grow. And if you don't know the right people that can help you or you don't know the right people that you can help, it's gonna be hard for you to grow. So the whole point of this convention is to connect people with people in a space where we all feel comfortable to be ourselves.
[00:41:52] Speaker B: That's your package there. That. That was so good.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: Don't miss it. And if you do miss it, get our email list so you won't miss it the next time we do it, which is probably 2027.
[00:42:05] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, thank you, Leo Orleans. Your hilarious. I love your. I love your content and I just really appreciate you coming on and talking with us today to walk us through what it's like to go to a magic festival.
[00:42:18] Speaker A: Absolutely. You can find us at mystifymagicfestival.com or on Instagram @mystifymagic festival. And if you want to see more about what I do, you can catch
[email protected] or tiny girl big show on the Instagram.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: It's really good. It's really. It's freaking hilarious.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: Thanks, bud. Appreciate it.
