Magician Matt DiSero

[00:00:00] Speaker A: If you love magic as much as I do, leave a like on this video and please consider subscribing. Just like cowbells, There aren't that many podcasts that feature magicians and we need your support. And remember that every time a magic podcast gets a listen somewhere out there. And remember, somewhere out there, a rubber band gets pulled magically through another rubber band and a ring of metal links onto another ring of metal. Today on the show, I'm joined by the hilarious and wildly talented Matt Decero. One of Canada's top comedy magicians and a world class entertainer. With a career that's taken him from military bases in Afghanistan to luxury cruise ships and television specials around the globe. Matt has shared the stage with legendary performers, brought laughter and astonishment to audiences everywhere, and built a reputation of combining razor sharp wit with strong, thoughtful magic. Beyond the laughs, he's a deeply insightful performer who understands what makes entertainment connect and what keeps magic meaningful in a world that's seen it all. In this conversation, we'll talk about the early days in magic, how developed his signature comedic voice, his philosophy on performing, and what keeps him inspired after decades in the business. So sit back, relax, and enjoy. This is my conversation with Matt Decero. Yay, Matt. Thanks for coming on. [00:01:04] Speaker B: Thank you. I don't know who wrote that intro, but that's a heck of an intro. [00:01:07] Speaker A: Well, thank you very much. I'll send you. I'll send you the. The copy of it. So I'm currently hiding out in a labyrinth castle of the Goblin King, where I have found that I'm actually a prince, prince of the Bog of Stench. And you are currently in Toronto and not on a cruise ship. So welcome to the cruise. [00:01:20] Speaker B: I'm in the frozen hellhole of Hoth. You went from Labyrinth? I went right to Star Wars. [00:01:25] Speaker A: That's fair. I wasn't sure if I was going to go Labyrinth or Bioshock. I don't know how much of a gamer you are. [00:01:30] Speaker B: A little bit. My kid is not a gamer, so I've been pulled away from it for a while. But I still am a Zelda. I'm a Zelda guy. [00:01:37] Speaker A: Okay. Favorite Zelda. [00:01:38] Speaker B: It's funny, I just said to my son a couple days ago that my least favorite is Breath of the Wild because it is unnecessarily difficult. [00:01:46] Speaker A: Difficult? [00:01:48] Speaker B: I found it to be difficult. Oh, no. And then it's funny how it goes though. Do you know what that conversation led us to is? I don't know how old you are, if you would remember this, but I Do. My all time favorite video game is American McGee's Alice. And I saw it here and I showed him one of the walkthroughs on YouTube and now he's like, he's into that. [00:02:07] Speaker A: That's important. That's a classic. [00:02:09] Speaker B: It really is a classic. [00:02:10] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great game. [00:02:12] Speaker B: Oh, I could play it endlessly. [00:02:14] Speaker A: Nothing like Alice with a, with a knife just chopping around. [00:02:18] Speaker B: Yeah, if you're throwing jacks at card. [00:02:20] Speaker A: Guards, that's pretty great. [00:02:21] Speaker B: Yep. Makes me make. I, I like, I like cutting up the card guards because it's like every magic shop owner in the world, I don't like, I imagine it being them. That's right. That's how you do it. [00:02:31] Speaker A: So we have to ask, we have to ask the inevitable question. How did you get into magic? [00:02:36] Speaker B: Everybody always asks, but gotta ask. In my case, it was my great uncle who was a fire eater and sword swallower in the sideshow at the cne. I don't know what America's equivalent of that. It's like the Canadian National Exhibition. [00:02:49] Speaker A: Okay. [00:02:51] Speaker B: Big thing in Toronto. And he gave me the amateur magician's handbook. And so from that he was like, hey, you want to learn how to eat fire? And my mom's like, no. And then I was like, yeah, I need to learn. So that's, yeah, that's how I started. And then that was. Geez. I would be like, I think my first show for anybody was like grade 7 or grade 8 and kept going. Never. I've never had a job except for, you know, being a movie theater rusher for a year and a half in high school, in grade nine and I've never had a job. [00:03:18] Speaker A: Yeah, didn't you, I heard it at like age 16. You just took off and got your, got your license and just went on tour. [00:03:25] Speaker B: Well, the first gig ever, I marked the start of the career by the first road gig because there had been like bar gigs and stuff like that. But the first road gig was Sudbury, Ontario and it was on the day of my birthday. So if I didn't pass my driver's license test, I wasn't going. And it was with Evan Carter, a well known comedian here in Toronto who I remain friends with to this day. And yeah, got the license, went on the road and I just never stopped working. [00:03:48] Speaker A: How did you get into comedy? [00:03:49] Speaker B: Well, I mean, I was a fan of Harry Anderson of course, from, you know, Night Court and oh yeah, my uncle was funny. A lot of people in my family were funny. So it just seemed like a Natural fit. That, that's what I wanted to do. And I, I mean, look at me, I'm a nerd. Like I, I'm not. I love David Copperfield, but my big influence is Paul Daniels. And so Paul was funny and I used to watch his show every night. It came on YTV here in Toronto, so. [00:04:13] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:04:13] Speaker B: Yeah. We were lucky to get it in rerun, so every night it came out so good. Oh. So I mean he's just, he's my hero. So I wanted to, you know, everybody wants to be David Copperfield. I have a joke, I opened my show about how I go, you know, everybody asked how you wanted to be a magician, but. Or how you became a magician, but, you know, for me it was David Copperfield. But When I was 12 or 13, I found out I could not be like David Copperfield because I am not sexy like David Copperfield. And I have a few other jokes, but yeah, so it's really Paul's influence probably more than anyone, making me go, oh, this is fun and funny. And I, I had a bunch of teachers in high school and other people who would hire me for the kids birthday parties and malls and stuff like that, so. And I got to work it out until I got to comedy clubs. [00:04:54] Speaker A: When you would book a comedy club, like how much would be comedy and, or would you do magic at the comedy club or would you just straight do comedy? [00:05:02] Speaker B: I have done both, but I'm not very good as a straight standup, to be honest. I can write it and I can help comics write it. I do quite often now, but I, I'm not very good at just delivering it. It's a, it's its own chop. And I've really only seen one magician expertly go from straight stand up to variety and then back to magic and stand up back. Dave Mary, he's a Toronto act, he's a brilliant comic, but it's hard to do. So I sort of try and mix the two together. I've always done that. And I was also fortunate. In Toronto there was a place called Harper's, A little night magic. Oops, that's me hitting the thing that I'm not very, you know, I'm not. [00:05:37] Speaker A: Tech savvy, but I, I thought that was a special effect you, you worked on. [00:05:41] Speaker B: That's right, I worked on Harpers. I'm going to be using that. So this dinner theater was in downtown Toronto and I had won a comedy competition in my hometown of Brampton and it let me have, I think a seven minute spot at the comedy club above it called the Laugh Resort, but below it was Harper's A Little Night Magic and Glenn Ottaway and Wes Herrick and Mike Carboni and Jeff and Tessa Evans and everybody worked there. Wow. Everybody worked there. Sorry, I did it again. I didn't mean to go to the Evisons. [00:06:07] Speaker A: They knew you would do that. [00:06:08] Speaker B: For a young 16, 16 and a half year old kid, 17 year old kid, that was a good place to go to learn. So I learned to sort of be funny. Glenn Ottaway was the house MC and he kind of took me under his wing. We were tense at the beginning, but now we are not. We're still friends to this day. Oh, he helped a lot. And then, you know, because there was a comedy club up top, I got to work there a little bit. And then there was a big chain of comedy clubs in Canada called Yak Yuk. I don't know if you've heard of them before, but at one point the world's largest chain of comedy clubs. So I went to work there and from there you just learned to be a bar act and you learned to play comedy clubs. But the problem is that clubs teach you to be here anyways. They teach you to be dirty really to survive because you might be working like an oil rigger place, you know, up in northern Edmonton or Alberta. So I found I wasn't learning what I wanted to learn, which is how to play theaters ultimately. So I was like, okay, how do I get out of this and move into cruise ships? And then that's how I came to ships and then I never got off them. Yeah. [00:07:08] Speaker A: For anyone that's listening to this, yeah. [00:07:10] Speaker B: Cruise ship guy, I do well, I used to do, geez, 32, 35 weeks a year and I now do 20 and off. But I've worked for Royal Caribbean most of my adult life and from there Holland America and celebrity. So. But Royal has really kept me in business. Like I'm very grateful to them. You know, in the 2008 economic collapse it was Royal that allowed me to keep my house. [00:07:32] Speaker A: You know, I, I actually, I remember that. [00:07:34] Speaker B: And a lot of entertainers sort of had to get jobs or, you know, fell apart. It was a mess. But Royal kept me working and they always have. So I've had tiffs with them, you know, back and forth like everybody does in a two or three year career. But ultimately they've been very good to me. So working there always taught me how to, you know, play theaters was what I wanted and now I get to play them. But I don't have to do any of the effort. Like I'm playing a thousand seat theater, but I don't have to sell tickets or get asses in the seats. Like, you go. Go work Justin Willman. Get all the people. I'll just go walk down from my cabin. And the joint's full. It's great. [00:08:09] Speaker A: I love that. I. I did. I am interested in cruise ships, just in general, because they're such giant machines that have to have everything on it. And just the. The thing is like, hey, let's get. You want to go to a place that has the best food? Let's go to. In the middle of the ocean. It's. I feel like we're. [00:08:27] Speaker B: You can always have the best food. [00:08:29] Speaker A: Well, I'm just saying the food's already there on the land and we just want to take it over here and eat it. So we often, like, just. It's. The cruise ships are wild to me because. [00:08:38] Speaker B: Have you seen the new ones? Like the icon of the seas? [00:08:41] Speaker A: I want to. [00:08:42] Speaker B: It's 7900 passengers and like 3500 crew. [00:08:47] Speaker A: That is insane. [00:08:49] Speaker B: And then, you know, you think about all the food and all the weight of everything in there. It's amazing that they float. And then there's a thing called turnaround day. It's the day when that week's passengers get off and the new ones come on. That is the day when you learn how complex trips are because they get all the garbage off, all the old stuff off, the new stuff on the old luggage. So you're talking 7900 people's luggage probably times two pieces of luggage off and on from about seven in the morning till two in the afternoon. Plus all the food, the waste, refueling. There's a thing that. Oops. See, I'm terrible. My hands just go everywhere. [00:09:24] Speaker A: I love it. [00:09:24] Speaker B: I'm a mess. [00:09:25] Speaker A: Thriller. [00:09:26] Speaker B: There's a thing that spans the length of the cruise ship in the crew area. It's just like this giant hallway. They call it the i95. And it's where like, they just put all the luggage there. And it's just a sea of people. And on turnaround day, it is crazy. I would never ask a crew member for anything on turnaround. I would never. I just want to get into the cabin and let them do their thing and leave them alone. [00:09:48] Speaker A: So you're. [00:09:48] Speaker B: That's right. [00:09:49] Speaker A: How did you get into performing on cruise ships? What? When did you go. And cruise ships are where it's at. [00:09:54] Speaker B: So When I was 19, I had heard that there was a cruise ship, which is a company that's no longer in business, called Discovery Cruises, but they were auditioning here in Toronto. I was like, I want to work ships. I hear this. So I go and I audition. And it gets down to. All my friends are there, like Wes the Herrick, Tony Molesworth, all these guys are there. And it gets down to myself and Wes the Herrick, my best friend. Wes is older than me. He's the established act. He's hilarious Juggler. And I'm like, it's going to go to Wes. And then they're like, well, whichever one of you two we decide on, you're going to love it. You know, there's. There's free drinks and there's food all over. And Wes goes. He doesn't mind me saying this, but Wes goes, free drinks, that's great, because I'm a raging alcoholic. And then I immediately got the gig. So I was, I was gone for a month there. But the cruise line was terrible. It was day cruises to Bahamas and there was too many show shows and I had to call Bingo. And Ken and Barbie Pointer from Toronto were on with me at one point. And so we, you know, we left that. And then I was like, okay, I want to work real cruise ships. I want to work Royal Caribbean. I want to. So I. This was back in the days of VHS tapes. And I had my promo tape, which was like some live performance and a TV show that I had done here called comedy at Club 54, which is kind of like the evening of the Improv of Canada, kind of. And yeah, I remember spending $1,000 at the time with. For all these VHS tapes to go to every cruise line and booker I could find in these books and stuff. There's no Internet. And Robin Cahill at Royal Caribbean took me on and that's how I came to ships tryout week first. And then I've always been. I've always been like a fly on act. I've never been installed. So, like, I think you talked to Matt Johnson, maybe he's like an installed guy. He goes on for longer runs. I've always been a week or two at a time guy. Okay. Like myself. Martin Lewis was there at the time. Nick Lewin was there at the time. All these guys. Yeah, that's. And then I just. I like the money and I like the atmosphere of it. And I like, you know, at the time, I like to travel. So I just thought, oh, this is great. And then I had a pretty good career of doing corporate work here. In Toronto and Canada when I could. And between the two, it was a pretty decent living. And then I kind of phased my way out of corporate. And now because I have a son who I focus all my attention on, I just do the ships whenever I can. And now the. The booker of entertainment on Royal Caribbean is the son of a juggler. [00:12:05] Speaker A: Right? [00:12:05] Speaker B: Wow. A juggler who worked cruise ships for a long time in Vegas. So he is great because now he under. He understands, right? So he's like, oh, you have a kid, you can't be away more than four or four or five days. Don't wor your 2026 calendar. They set me up with everything I needed and wanted, so been very fortunate in that way. But the theaters are beautiful. They're nicer or as nice as anything on land. Yeah. The audiences are great for what I do, so well, let's talk about a. [00:12:29] Speaker A: Great cruise ship act. So you, you kind of had a. Kind of a smart idea of learning theater, learning how to play theaters. Those theaters are like what, 1500, 2000, maybe more people in those. [00:12:43] Speaker B: Depends on the cruise line. Like a Holland America, which is a slightly older person's cruise. Its demographic is in the 70s, probably 60s or was when I was there. Those are more like lounge type theaters. They might be 800 seats, but Royal Caribbean's go up to 1500. I was on Celebrity all summer doing Alaska and that, I think that was a 1200 seat theater. So once a week you're in a 1200 seat theater, you're doing an early show on a late show. It's pretty nice to have access to that and not have to worry about hustling to get people in there. [00:13:11] Speaker A: So it's great. What kind of bits do well on a cruise ship? What. What works best on a cruise? [00:13:16] Speaker B: Well, I think it's the entertainer. Right. So if they like you, they will like what you do. David Ben is always a fan of saying, you know, if you are invested in the work you're doing and if you're excited by it, the audience will also be probably true. So for my type of stuff, I vary it. I do do one card trick, but I don't use any projection because I don't like the technology. I don't know how to use it. I don't want to learn. I'm lazy. I'm totally lazy. So I do that. I do. You know, I did this psychometry thing at the end that I did on fool us or I know the color of people's underwear. Basically. I think, I think if it's interactive and it makes them the stars of the show and it's funny, it will go well. Which is probably, you know, true of almost any variety entertainer these days, I think. Not without its challenges though. I do knife through coat in my show and now very few people wear jackets, even on formal night. So I have now learned to do knife through coat with like I did shawls, vests. I had a guy take a shirt off once. Like, I'm doing this, I'm not stopping. There's no way. I love it too much. But yeah, I mean, it's hard. But then I see there are. I have friends who are like illusionists and they're very serious and they kill too. So it's about, you know, I really think it's about. If the audience likes you at the beginning, they'll like whatever you do. But I know that it's popular now to see the guys, the people. Not just guys, the people with the screens, you know, the card. Like you were saying, the guys are doing card tricks on the screen. And I've tried to do that on Celebrity this summer they asked me to do a matinee and then I was like, okay, I'll do that, but in exchange can I try and work out some stuff? And it's not really for me, me, it's not my thing. I'm learning it. But I can see how people love it and I can see how entertainers like it because everything just fits into a small case and they fly away. [00:14:50] Speaker A: Yeah, you can just. All cards. Oops. All cards. [00:14:54] Speaker B: Yeah, my whole act fits into a. Like a doctor's bag. [00:14:58] Speaker A: Perfect. [00:14:59] Speaker B: Yeah. I take the Martin Lewis approach. Like if it doesn't fit in that doctor's bag, I'm not doing it. And the trick is to make small things play big on stage. But that's where lighting comes into play. And once you learn that and how to work with the curtain and three quarter curtain and maybe you work, you know, towards the apron. There's all these things that you can do to make your smaller things play bigger. And so I leverage that and then funny is funny. So if you're funny, they like it no matter what. [00:15:24] Speaker A: What, how when you book a cruise, I've heard some people say you, you really want like two different 40 minute shows or do you. What's. What are they looking for? [00:15:34] Speaker B: So it seems like industry Standard now is two different 45 minute shows, but Royal Caribbean. Well, I think in the contract that I haven't read in a lot of years, I think in the contract, it asked for two fives. But most of the time, 98% of the time you're doing one 45 minute set twice, Early Show, Late Show, 45 each. So that's mostly what I do. But I always go with 90 minutes of material. [00:15:56] Speaker A: Okay. [00:15:57] Speaker B: That seems to be like on Celebrity when I was there all summer, for sure, it was 90 minutes for. And sometimes more. If they ask for a little favor here and there or maybe somebody gets sick or the seas are rocky and they ask you to do something good to have more. So if you're a magician listening. Yeah. Have backup material just in case. And if you're not a magician, well, you enjoy the show, there's more material for you. [00:16:17] Speaker A: Yeah, here's, here's some stuff. Here's some stuff about, you know, cruise ship magicians. Yeah. I, I had a, I didn't have the world's best experience when I went on the last cruise. When it came to the magician, it was just which cruise line it was Royal Caribbean. [00:16:32] Speaker B: So I know them for sure. [00:16:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So it was. I wish I could remember the name because it was so boring. So I started, I went, I started looking on penguin magic.com and I said, okay, yep, I know that trick. That's 200 bucks. I know that trick. [00:16:46] Speaker B: And wow. Yeah, it was. Keep away from stuff that's popular like that for. [00:16:50] Speaker A: Sometimes cruise ship magicians are very derivative. Like, you're going to have the basket, you know, you're going to have the bowling ball in the suitcase, you know. [00:17:00] Speaker B: Can I tell you a story? [00:17:02] Speaker A: Please do. [00:17:03] Speaker B: I work for Artist West Entertainment. They're a big cruise ship agency, but they're a small boutique. One of my oldest friends in comedy, Steve Smith, owns it and Ron Reed, who used to book the Seattle Comedy Festival. And they have some variety acts, but not many. But I think I was probably one of the first magicians. And on their website now it says if you're a magician submitting, you know, your video for representation and you produce a bowling ball, get out of a straight jacket, make it snow, cut and restore a rope or link rings and something else. Please don't submit to us. No, because they are, you know, they're big on like original, they want, they want original funny acts. That's what they really want. So it, but it just goes to show you the derivative thing. They recognize that and they're leveraging against that. But you're right, you know, you see a lot of magicians do the same material, but that, that's true on land as well, yeah. [00:17:56] Speaker A: How. How do you keep your. When you want to say you want to swap something out, how do you. How do you pick it? I mean, you know, what. What's your process for finding something that you want to put in that's different than what you already have? [00:18:08] Speaker B: So I'm working on something right now, and pretty much there. I think it actually involves that prop right there, that applause sign. Louis Fox sells that thing. And it's in Louis version. It's got a light in it. You know, it's the. It's the milk to light bulb effect. [00:18:21] Speaker A: Okay. [00:18:22] Speaker B: Only Louis has, like a Gatorade bottle. The Gatorade vanishes and reappears inside the site. And I've switched it up with the silk and I'm doing some other things with it. So when I feel like it's ready. Although that's been sitting around since lockdown. So, like, I associate it with lockdown. And now I'm like, I don't want to touch it. Sometimes it just. I don't want the depression. But it's coming into the show. It's out for a reason. And when I. This. This is actually a bad example because this will have to be an opener the way I've written the piece. But generally speaking, I just bring in a new piece and I surround it with two strong ones. So something is great. If the new thing is crap or weak or something fails in it, then I have something follow up immediately that's strong, which is the way it should be. And then eventually, you know, they keep saying you just take your closer and you move it to the front of the show, and you take your closer and you move it to the front. And then eventually you just have a whole show of closers. So that's the. That's the goal. And when you work in something new, you just put it in the middle. I'm very lazy. [00:19:13] Speaker A: That's. No, that's actually really clever. I liked. I've actually never heard the concept of taking your closer and moving it, moving it up. [00:19:20] Speaker B: It's a comedian thing. Excuse me. A lot of. A lot of comics suggest you do that. And it does work. It works with magic, too. Except for something like this. This is. This has to be an opener in my case. But that will be interesting because, man, you want to open strong. You get 10 seconds for them to size you up, and then your first piece, they decide. So if the opener sucks, maybe I'll do it on a cruise line that I don't work. [00:19:40] Speaker A: There you go. [00:19:40] Speaker B: Normally, I'll do it on a new line. [00:19:42] Speaker A: Yeah. That way you can. You can just bomb hard and actually there's a. There's a really great story you had on. On a different. On a different group about how you bombed on a cruise ship. First day, it was from Puerto Rico to Africa. [00:19:55] Speaker B: Sorry. [00:19:56] Speaker A: So, yeah. [00:19:56] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:19:57] Speaker A: Can you tell a little bit about that story? [00:19:59] Speaker B: Is this the one that led to the days and days of drinking and the flop sweat? [00:20:03] Speaker A: Probably. [00:20:04] Speaker B: These are. I don't know if I don't know where you read it or where you saw it. [00:20:07] Speaker A: I saw it on. You did an interview or not interview. You did a group interview and about. It's on your website about dirty versus working clean. [00:20:15] Speaker B: Clean versus Dirty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ward Anderson show. So I probably didn't mention. But do you know what world cruises are? [00:20:22] Speaker A: No. [00:20:22] Speaker B: So world cruise. [00:20:23] Speaker A: I don't get out much people. [00:20:25] Speaker B: You don't want this. Nobody wants this. I don't even know why people take these things. Ching. World cruise. World cruises are like 190 day cruises. You go all over the world. And so you learn very quickly that the new acts, they go, oh, you're gonna. You're gonna book a world cruise. And then they put you at the end of the 190 days when it's turned into Lord of the Flies on that ship. And everyone's like, that's my chair. [00:20:48] Speaker A: Don't come near it. [00:20:49] Speaker B: You know, it's like that. And they group off, right. So you can't. It's very hard to kill. So that Puerto Rico too. I think it was Tenerife or somewhere in that. I can't remember. All I know is I have not died like that. I've never died like that and never, never. And my friends, the two jugglers, the comedian George Cantor, who I just worked with a couple weeks ago, and he was pleased to remind me of how badly I died then. Watch me. And George is like, it was just a flop sweat and you're soaking wet. I'm like, yeah, there's just. And there's nothing you can do once that audience hates you, that's it. But I have nine more days with these people, right? So now it's like, if you. When you do well, it's great. Everybody enjoyed your show. But when they don't like you, which doesn't happen to me very often, I don't even die. Maybe once a year, you can at least tread water usually. But this was death. Like, not a titter, not a laugh. It was like. Like being in the mall of dawn of the dead with the zombies, right? Like, there's no. You're trying to run to the roof, hoping a helicopter is going to come to get you, but they're not. [00:21:49] Speaker A: No one's coming to rescue. [00:21:50] Speaker B: No one's coming to help you. And all you can do is just go with the other acts who have also died equally as badly. Only I was the first one. I was like, first on the beach at Normandy, man, they just gave me. Made me storm the beach with a flag in my hand. I got nothing. And then, you know, you're just. All you can do is drink heavily. Heavily drink always. And then I'll never forget it. It's the end of the cruise. I don't know if this is the part of the story that you found. I don't know what I said on wards. [00:22:15] Speaker A: It was hilarious. The whole. [00:22:16] Speaker B: The whole. All I know is I remember everybody. We're approaching Tenerife, so it's been like nine days of sea. There's no land, and everybody comes up to the front of the. Every, like, at that time, maybe 2500. They're all at the front of the ship. I swear, I thought the ship was going to tilt and they were just like. They hadn't seen land in nine days. And believe me, I was like, I'm using everything in my power to get off of this thing first. I want off of it, too. But I thought, man, how do the settlers of the new world do this over, what was it, two months? I think something they got. But you're just. You're a raging alcoholic. And then you get off into Tenerife and you're like, it's time to drink more. Because now it's relief drinking. First it's tension drinking, now it's relief drinking. So I don't know if that's what I said or talked about on Ward's thing. I remember that show, the Clean versus Dirty show was interesting, but I don't remember what I said on it. [00:23:04] Speaker A: So it was. It was mostly other people saying stuff, but it was. You handled yourself. You came on very well on that. [00:23:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Frosty was on that. I think Darren Frost, it was a dirty comic, so it was good. Barbing back and forth with him. [00:23:16] Speaker A: It was good. Yeah, you did very well on there. And the bow tie really sold it. Do you now? I am very much. I. I used to wear ties and bow ties and everything. Not. Not to perform because. But to perform, but also to work. And after Covid, I just. Like, we went to Scrubs and I. Because I Couldn't find, you know, you couldn't wear that stuff. And I would wear the Oompa Loompa thing where it's like, you only see my eyes. And I was just completely covered to work on people. Do you. Do you find that, like. Do you still wear bow ties? Do you still, like, wear suits when you. When you go on cruises or. [00:23:51] Speaker B: Like. It's my uniform. I don't think I've ever said this on any interview ever, but the real reason I wear the gray suit and the. The red bow tie is because it's the same red suit or gray suit and red tie as Buckaroo Bonsai. And I. I have Buckaroo. The Buckaroo Bonsai posters framed in my living room. [00:24:09] Speaker A: That's an exclusive. [00:24:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:11] Speaker A: Oh. [00:24:11] Speaker B: That's how. And I always, you know, somewhere in the show, no matter what the show is, I will always stop. No matter where you are, no matter where you go, there you are. I always make some Buckaroo Banzai reference. [00:24:22] Speaker A: I had Buckaroo Banzai on my viewmaster. [00:24:25] Speaker B: I. I swear to you, my friend Kit Passel, who's not an act, he's a animator, he just gave me the slides. Like, I could literally go get it in two seconds. Room, My living room. But there's two. [00:24:36] Speaker A: I don't know where mine are. So you. [00:24:37] Speaker B: Two packs. There's two packs of them. And he also gave me a Team Bonsai pin that you can put on your little. [00:24:43] Speaker A: That's cool. [00:24:45] Speaker B: So that's why. So I wear the suit, but also the nature of. The crowds that I work for are a little bit older, and so I think it works better. Like, a lot of comics wear kind of what I'm wearing now or some. A very old friend of mine who I worked all summer with, he wears a T shirt. He's a comedian, but he wears a T shirt and black jeans and running shoes. He kills. That's the nature of what he does. And they. Again, as long as they like you. [00:25:09] Speaker A: So that's more important. [00:25:10] Speaker B: Yeah, my look is that thing. I like the. And I have bits with the bow tie. Like, I do the homing card with this thing with the rubber chicken. But at one point, I. I look at this woman, and I kind of do this, like, flirty thing. And then she always flirts back. And I pull the bow tie. Yahtzee. [00:25:26] Speaker A: Nice. [00:25:27] Speaker B: Okay. Bow tie hangs. So then the rest of the time, you know, I do the top button. And then the rest of the time, I get to be like Dean Martin or something. And I'm hanging with the bow tie open, so it works for me. [00:25:37] Speaker A: David Peck wrote about you in the Lincoln Ring, also on your website. Great article, but you are. [00:25:42] Speaker B: David did a great job with that. [00:25:43] Speaker A: One thing that I really connected with is when you talked, when he talked about you taking the temperature of the room, that you're exceptional at taking the temperature of the room. And I do the same thing in, but with bedside manner, with patience. I walk in, I take the temperature and what I wanted to take. This is an important concept that I think everyone needs to learn. So can you tell a little bit about your. How. What that means to you? [00:26:08] Speaker B: Like temperature of the room or the way I establish it that either one. [00:26:13] Speaker A: Because both of them are important to know what it is and how to make it, how to turn it. Maybe. [00:26:18] Speaker B: So if it's a, if it's a corporate event, let's say I always go. If there's a lot of table chatter, it's going to be a great audience. So they'll be easy. If they're very quiet, it's going to be difficult. Same with like, if a cruise director is introducing you and the audience is very quiet, or even when they give very little, I go, oh, I'm going to have to work my ass off to get them. And then I have an established. The opening of my show will probably never change. It involves a lawn dart. It's actually gone on away. It's gifted to me, but it is the perfect bit that it tells me everything I need to know about that crowd. The size and volume of that laugh tells me how fast I have to work or how slow I have to work. Should I be like, everything in the bit tells me, like, should I be nice? Should I be slightly more aggressive? Can I be risque? Can I not be risque? And that's all established in like a maybe 45 second bit. Like that's what you need right out of the gate. And so with the temperature of the room is. Although I like a cold theater, you know, Letterman famously kept the temperature at like 62 degrees, right? The colder the room, the easier it is to. To. To make them laugh. That is. The best comedy clubs in the world are super cold, dark, no distractions on the wall, low ceiling, so that laughs can't go up. But the temperature means everything if it's hot. Think about it. I'm sure you've been in a theater or even a movie theater when it's hot, you're like, you can't pay attention, you don't want to but if you're cold, you're up, you're focused. Right. [00:27:37] Speaker A: But absolutely didn't even think about that. [00:27:38] Speaker B: I want the emotional temperature of the room. I want to know. So, yeah, you need to. But that also can change with people as they come up on stage, too. So you have to just, like, you probably, like, you go from one chair to another. [00:27:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:48] Speaker B: You get to be one way. The next person could be whatever. [00:27:52] Speaker A: You get one sentence to figure out where. Where the. Where that appointment's going to go. So you said you got 45 seconds to take. Would you say that that's about, you know, that's about standard for, like, what, how much time you get to kind of seize the moment? [00:28:07] Speaker B: That bid is 45 seconds. I think the order of operations is you walk out, they size you up in about five seconds. Does he look professional? Does he look like you'll be funny or whatever you're billed as? Then you start talking. Right. Maybe you get 10 seconds to go. And that might be charitable. Do they like how you talk? And then whatever your first bit is, it has to tell you everything about them. And it. In my case, it better be funny because if it's not, it sets the tone for everything. Yeah, I always make sure that I do that bit and then it tells and then I can just moderate from there. Just probably, like, you probably walk up and you're like, up. This guy's got his arms crossed, his legs are crossed. You can tell he's tense. He doesn't like dentists. [00:28:43] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I mean, my case, I'm. [00:28:45] Speaker B: Sitting there going, these lingual arches will never come off my teeth. I hate you all. Hate you. [00:28:50] Speaker A: Lingual, Lingual arches. What's wrong with your lingual arches? [00:28:54] Speaker B: The one in the bottom of my teeth has been there since I was in grade five in 1985. It's a massive, thick bar. It's the old school. And the one. [00:29:01] Speaker A: I got one too. [00:29:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And the one up top is the newer ones. Well, the new one breaks all the time. Good luck finding a dentist on a sea day on a cruise ship. I've had it break and I've had to go on stage and you know when the wire sticks out, right? Like. [00:29:15] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that's. [00:29:15] Speaker B: I once, I swear to you, I bit a gummy bear in half and stuck the gummy bear on the wire. And that's how I did my show. So it didn't take my time. [00:29:23] Speaker A: Super smart. Well, I'll have to get you some. I'll have to send you some temporary Material you can, you can take with you and stick on there. [00:29:31] Speaker B: Oh, the bonding, the. [00:29:33] Speaker A: They make, they make temporary material that it gets, it starts off like a little paste and you just kind of like rub it on there and then it will actually harden up. [00:29:40] Speaker B: Oh, wow. That sounds almost like the pitch that got me involved with cocaine. Almost. [00:29:45] Speaker A: That's true. Yeah. This goes on the back of the gums. The cocaine goes on the front. Yeah. And if you chop up anti anxiety medications and put it under your tongue, it works a lot better too. But that's. [00:29:56] Speaker B: I got it. [00:29:56] Speaker A: That's under a dog. [00:29:57] Speaker B: I got a closet full of anti anxiety medications. Right. It's all nasty. That's good. [00:30:02] Speaker A: It's. I, I think we should bring those. [00:30:03] Speaker B: On cruise ships either. [00:30:05] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. They, they're clamping down on. A lot of them are clamping down on cannabis as well. [00:30:10] Speaker B: Yeah. You're not supposed to bring it on. Like, if you like that kind of stuff, I suggest you do it when you get to a port and you're on land. Smoke, eat whatever you like, but don't bring it on a ship. It's not wise. You're just. This is not worth, it's not worth your. If you're a magician or an entertainer, it's not worth your career. And if you're a passenger, it's not worth getting banned from the cruise line. Just makes no sense. [00:30:28] Speaker A: So do they have, do they have a, like a jail for unruly people or like if you murder someone on a, on a cruise ship. [00:30:34] Speaker B: I just heard a story about an entertainer that went, came back on a ship drunk out of his mind. I don't want to say what he did because all the acts know the story. But the point is that he, he went insane and he ended up in the brig. He ended up in the brig. Dang. I guess, I guess he was claustrophobic or something. This is what I take from the story. But he was claustrophobic and he's just freaking out. And people thought, in the cabins above it, people thought somebody was being tortured downstairs and they're, they're calling security. But then what are you going to do? So, yeah, there's a brig on there, a jail and there's a morgue. Right. Of course, both. [00:31:06] Speaker A: Right. Is it pretty common for, I mean, because there's a lot of older people on cruise ships. Is it, is it fairly common to, you know, to have some, some unfortunate events on cruise ships? [00:31:19] Speaker B: I mean, a lot of times they can help, like they drop the helicopter Comes. They drop the basket and they get them off. The hell. Pat them off. The emergency evac them. But, yeah, I've. I've had it happen. Somebody die in the show. Matter of fact, I thought they were sleeping and I was making fun of them, and then, no. God. And then I realized they passed away, and then that was the. That was the bad karma that led to the rest of my life, probably. But, yeah, yeah, it's. It. It happens. It totally happens. But, I mean, it happens anywhere, right? I guess you could have a heart attack or an aneurysm, pop anywhere. [00:31:47] Speaker A: I mean, what do. What do you do in that as a performer? It can't just like, can you even consider. [00:31:53] Speaker B: They stop the show, right. The curtain. They stop the show. But then if they. They don't usually ask you to go back. But if I've been on stage and they haven't done that and they've wheeled. You know, maybe they wheeled them off in like a stretcher or something. And then I just go. I was going to be. Okay, folks, round of applause. You keep the. What are you going to do? [00:32:11] Speaker A: Like, if you clap real hard, their heart will start again. [00:32:14] Speaker B: That's right. That's right. That's exactly right. That's all you can do. Like. And then you just keep trucking and you hope that they. Yeah, you don't want it to derail you. If you're a pro, you'll let nothing derail you. You just keep going. [00:32:25] Speaker A: That's the key as a performer. How much interaction do you have with the rest of the. The cru. The cruise? [00:32:29] Speaker B: So I'm just like a passenger. Most reputable cruise lines will hire you, with the exception of one that I know of, one big cruise line, they make the acts go on as crew, but otherwise you're a passenger. You get passenger status. So that means anything a passenger can do, you can do. You get the same room, that kind of stuff. So general, generally speaking, you know, a suite or a balcony cabin, I think. Gone are the days of the tiny, crappy rooms on most cruise lines. I've endured those. You probably saw on Facebook or something. I. I posted every year, murder bed. You know, it was this bed that was covered in blood and slash marks, and it was on a cruise ship in a crew area. [00:33:02] Speaker A: Oh, God. [00:33:03] Speaker B: Like, yeah, you got to sleep on it. I'm like, no, no, yeah, I quit that cruise line. But yeah, yeah. So you're basically a passenger. It's a good. It is a good gig, except for the fact that you're away from your family. That's the real drag of it. But now the real bonus, or the bonus depending on who you married and how your life turns out. But I remember before, I'm 51 years old, man, I'm not ancient, but I remember when there was no Internet on ships. Used to have ship to shore phones. And then when the Internet was finally readily available on ships, used to have to pay by the minute and then by the megabyte. [00:33:32] Speaker A: Wow. [00:33:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I used to regularly get some hefty, like all the acts used to run off the ship when it docked. And like you go to a bar like Sharky's or something, say it's in, I don't know, somewhere in Mexico or something. You go to Elsa, boom, wherever there's WI fi so you could download, download your movies and TV shows for the week. [00:33:48] Speaker A: Holy moly. [00:33:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it was like that. But now, you know, all the ships have Starlink. The Internet's killer. I can. I FaceTime my kids through the Panama Canal so you can see it. [00:33:56] Speaker A: That's crazy. [00:33:57] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then when he came, he came to Alaska for two weeks this summer and he even, even he was kind of amazed. He's had Internet the whole time. And I'm like, yeah, man, it's not the old days. [00:34:07] Speaker A: That's great. What's something that most magicians wouldn't expect about working cruise ships? [00:34:12] Speaker B: The unbelievable boredom you are. You work one night, seven o' clock and nine, then you have six days and 20 hours to kill. So once you've seen the Caribbean, Europe, Alaska, you know, if there's no friends in port, right. What, what do you do? So you can only, you can only drink so much, you can only watch so much Netflix. It's. How do you kill time? So it's a problem for me still now too. And I'm starting to get to the end of my ability to, to deal with it, which is why I'm not taking longer cruises. Like all my friends are shipbacks and they're all like, yeah, the boredom factors. I have a friend who says, pretty well known comedian. And he goes, yeah, the problem with cruise ships is they pay you to waste your time. Like oftentimes I think there's no reason they couldn't get me off the ship at the next port. Once they've used my service, it's done. But they keep you on in case there's rough seas and the dance show or the whatever show. Can't do it. You're the guy has to. [00:35:04] Speaker A: Okay, so you kind of are you're kind of a contingency plan in some ways. [00:35:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. You're MacGyver if nothing. If nothing else happens. But you learn quickly. Like, you go, ooh, the sea is rough, right? You go, so say there's like a production show on that night. You're like, ooh, production shows. Okay. I'm not answering the phone today because you know it's going to be the production manager going, can you do whatever? I remember seeing a Facebook post from Nick Defot. Nick and I both were tall in America at the time. I don't think he works cruise ships anymore. But the Facebook post was rough seas today. I made the mistake of answering the phone and like all the acts laugh because we're like, oh, I know exactly what you had to do. More, more time. And it sucks when. When the ship is rocking, the audiences are not great. So you don't want to be up there either. It's better really for them to have no show at all. But they. [00:35:51] Speaker A: Has it ever been rough enough for where they just canceled all the entertainment two weeks ago. [00:35:55] Speaker B: It just happened two weeks ago. We couldn't even make the port. We were supposed to dock in Sydney and. But I've once sailed New York to Bermuda through Hurricane Irene. [00:36:03] Speaker A: God. [00:36:04] Speaker B: And I remember as I was walking, there was only about 3 people on the ship, including crew that were out. But as I was. I was getting air time as I was walking. Thank God. But no one's going to come to a show, so they cancel it all. It's actually, I think they can find people in the cabins at that point. It's not safe for them. [00:36:20] Speaker A: Wow. [00:36:20] Speaker B: Okay. But mostly, I mean, those ships are largely unsinkable and, you know, the crew knows what they're doing and there's never, you know, it's just sometimes you get bad weather and it comes out of nowhere. What can you do? You just gotta deal with it. [00:36:33] Speaker A: Although I'm the first one when they. That first. When they first get on, like, please report here to find out where your safe is. I'm the first one there because I want to know exactly where to go in case of an emergency. I'm just that guy. I'm like, I'm going to be the first one on this boat. [00:36:47] Speaker B: I've never been 20 something years. I don't think I've ever been to my muster station. The lifeboats can handle far more people than. [00:36:54] Speaker A: Yeah, but don't you. Isn't. So it's not a requirement for the. For the acts because I know they're like. They make you. They wouldn't leave until we had all gone. [00:37:01] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, yeah. [00:37:04] Speaker A: You're like, I'll just find a boat. [00:37:06] Speaker B: There are ways around it. And if you miss it, believe me, they're. They're leaving. But you'll get called down to guest relations the next day and you'll get a talking to by the purser or something like that. Sometimes that happens sometimes. Or maybe you know somebody and they scan your CPAS card and you. [00:37:23] Speaker A: It's all. [00:37:24] Speaker B: It's all who you know. [00:37:25] Speaker A: It's all who you know. That's how I've. That's how I'm. I've. That's how I've gotten to where I am in life. It's a little bit of skill, a lot of knowing people. [00:37:32] Speaker B: Show business is a, like, I think show business. Well, certainly not a meritocracy, that's for sure. It's. And it's largely. Yeah. Who, you know, how you're connected to people. There's a lot of that. And in life as well, I think, too, a lot of it is, you know, you get the job because you know somebody or whatever, or you get the opportunity or that's why. Do you know, I think he had Jonah Babbins on his podcast, but I always thought it was very clever of Jonah on his to say. To say to the guests, can you recommend to other guests who haven't been on before super smart, because. Yeah, it's brilliant. [00:38:04] Speaker A: I already got my two from you and I didn't. Well, see here, I didn't even have to ask. I made you want to do it. [00:38:09] Speaker B: So really, psychologically, that was really. That was Max Maven level smart guy. [00:38:13] Speaker A: Who's the genius now? I mean. Yeah, you're just. [00:38:16] Speaker B: We gotta interview you. [00:38:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm like, like, let's talk about. [00:38:20] Speaker B: I'll hook you up on those two guys. [00:38:21] Speaker A: You. [00:38:22] Speaker B: I promise you'll get. Well, one you already got. Oh, my God. [00:38:24] Speaker A: Okay, so one of the most important questions, and then we have a quick fire round. [00:38:28] Speaker B: Oh, I like that. Okay. [00:38:29] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. So the last official question is which doctor and why? And you know what I'm talking. [00:38:37] Speaker B: Of course, it's Tom Baker for me because he was my. He was from, you know, 1974 to 1981. I was born in 74, but when I came to Doctor who when I was 8 years old, he was the one in the reruns. Yes, but also, I mean, he and my. I always say he and MacGyver are also how, like my all My ethics and rules of life are from those two people. Really? So my mother used to say, I'm very happy that Doctor who and MacGyver are your heroes, because, you know, no guns. Be smart. Fight. Matter of fact, I got. I got Richard Dean Anderson's photo right there. He signed a piece of duct tape, which is awesome. And then I got. You see in the back corner? I got Tom Baker up there? [00:39:20] Speaker A: Yep. Okay. Oh, yep, yep, yep. [00:39:23] Speaker B: It's about. The whole place is a mess. I'm sorry. [00:39:25] Speaker A: Well, that's. Well, I mean, MacGyver, that's how I learned how to make a bomb out of a can of lard, a wire, and I'm pretty sure a piece of duct tape. I remember very clearly. He made a bomb and opened up a door with a tub of lard. And I'm like this, if this isn't the greatest show ever invented. [00:39:42] Speaker B: And I didn't even know. I didn't know about the piece of wire. I learned it without that. So you got the special. [00:39:47] Speaker A: Oh, I. I could be wrong, but, yeah, if you. [00:39:49] Speaker B: Did you see them? Did you see them when they remade the show? Did you see the remake? And pathetic. [00:39:55] Speaker A: It was an abomination. And I didn't. I'm sorry. I couldn't watch. [00:39:58] Speaker B: It was an abomination. [00:39:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:00] Speaker B: They actually had the nerve, the gall, as he's doing his MacGyverisms, to tell us what they're doing in print on the screen. Like, we can't figure it out. Show don't tell. First rule of writing. [00:40:09] Speaker A: Yeah, that was. That. That writing was. Was bad. I. I didn't get that far. I saw that there was a MacGyver. I saw that it was a. I saw a preview of it, and I said, well, I'm not watching that. [00:40:21] Speaker B: I think I screamed. I screamed at the tv. What kind of philistine pig ignorance. Yeah, it was terrible. Yeah. Sorry, sorry. Sorry to derail your last question there, but I went, no, that was. [00:40:33] Speaker A: Hey, listen, we. We need to rail against and be against all of these awful reboots. Reboots. [00:40:40] Speaker B: Yes. [00:40:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:41] Speaker B: It's wrong. [00:40:41] Speaker A: It's. [00:40:42] Speaker B: It's. Just. [00:40:43] Speaker A: Let it be. [00:40:44] Speaker B: It was great, right? [00:40:46] Speaker A: It was a product. [00:40:47] Speaker B: They're ruining all of my. Like, I just heard today that they're making a Voltron live action movie. And I'm like, you don't need that. That's half the cartoons as the cartoons. [00:40:56] Speaker A: Cartoons are still good. Why? [00:40:58] Speaker B: You know, my kid is 10. We watch them. [00:41:00] Speaker A: Yeah, they're still. Voltron's still good. Real ghostbusters if you want to go original. Real Ghostbusters. [00:41:06] Speaker B: He will even watch GeForce. Did you know GeForce? Like the first Japanese animated cartoon really to come to North America was Battle of the Planets? [00:41:14] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. I haven't watched much of it, but. [00:41:16] Speaker B: I remember seeing my mother used to let me stay up when they changed the times slot to 5am she would let me stay up all night to watch it. My mother was the best. She's a giant nerd too. My mother's a Lord of the Rings nerd, so she gets it. [00:41:29] Speaker A: And I heard you have Elvish on your, on your wedding ring. [00:41:32] Speaker B: Oh, you read that? Yeah, yeah, I read these things. You read. It's. Nobody reads anymore. [00:41:37] Speaker A: It's not very much. [00:41:38] Speaker B: But I, I have my, my, my mouse pad and desk cover is a map of Middle Earth. I'm literally looking at it right now. [00:41:48] Speaker A: Wow. [00:41:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. I am so cool. [00:41:51] Speaker A: All right, let's do quick fire rounds. [00:41:54] Speaker B: All right. [00:41:55] Speaker A: These are just super simple. Don't think too hard. All right. What's your go to? Guilty Pleasures. Yeah, you're good. These are, these are. They shouldn't be crazy. What's your go to? Guilty pleasure Snack before or after a show? This should be good because you got cruise ship stuff. [00:42:07] Speaker B: Well, yeah, cruise ships is a little different because they don't have a lot of snacks. So I have to bring it with me. One of those things. But I know you're American and you won't like hearing this, but it's ketchup chips. Ketchup potato chips. [00:42:20] Speaker A: Ketchup chips are good. And here's. Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to stop. This is a tangent, but I feel very strongly about ketchup chips. And I'll tell you why. Every once in a while, I don't like plain potato chips. I would sit there and I would dip them into ketchup. And if I was at work or something and people like, oh, what are you doing? I was like, let me ask you something. Do you like potato do, do you like French fries and like. Yes, I like French fries. Do you like soggy French fries or crispy French fries? I like crispy French fries. I have a whole bag here of crispy French fries that you dip into ketchup. So don't. Don't at me. Right? [00:42:50] Speaker B: Hang on one second, Ferris. I know I'm going to sell you on ketchup chips. Yeah, yeah. That's the move. That's exactly what you say. [00:42:57] Speaker A: It's the move. It's the move. It's a. It's a bag of. It's just a bag of crispy french fries and so I don't want to hear it. So there you go. There's your. [00:43:04] Speaker B: You. [00:43:04] Speaker A: You are allowed to like ketchup, but. [00:43:07] Speaker B: I know it's not easily accessible in America. Matt Stanley and I were like trading chips back and forth for a while. [00:43:11] Speaker A: Yeah, hers makes them TRRs but they're not hot. They're not high quality potato chips. But they're. They do have them. But yeah, you can't send you. [00:43:21] Speaker B: I'll mail you down the good ones. [00:43:22] Speaker A: Okay. And yeah, I'll mail you some dental stuff for when you go if you have any good trade emergencies. Yeah, it's actually good. [00:43:28] Speaker B: I got one. [00:43:28] Speaker A: I got. [00:43:29] Speaker B: My thing is going to cause you dental problems and yours is going to. [00:43:31] Speaker A: Solve mine, but I can fix mine any day. So you're. When you're stuck on the ship, you're going to really need those. You're going to really need that stuff. Okay. If you could perform for any historical figure, who would it be and what trick would you show them? [00:43:43] Speaker B: Wow, that's really great. Any historic. There has to be somebody dead. [00:43:47] Speaker A: Historic. That does not mean dead. It's somebody that I would know in history. [00:43:53] Speaker B: My mind goes to Stephen Hawking. [00:43:56] Speaker A: Nice. [00:43:57] Speaker B: I would probably like to perform for Stephen. He wouldn't say much in response to me. [00:44:02] Speaker A: He would write a lot though. [00:44:03] Speaker B: He'd write a lot about it. Yeah. [00:44:05] Speaker A: What trick would you show him? [00:44:06] Speaker B: What trick does every magician show anybody when they're caught off guard and you have to. It's going to be ambitious card. [00:44:11] Speaker A: Probably ambitious card. Nice. [00:44:13] Speaker B: Probably going to be ambitious card. I don't have. I was just talking another magician about this the other day. I don't have an everyday carry like I have a pack of cards with me and I'll do. I like Doc Daly's final trick an awful lot. You know the, the four aces change, you know, black, red change, play. [00:44:32] Speaker A: I like. [00:44:33] Speaker B: That's great. It's fast. It's in their hands if you want. [00:44:36] Speaker A: What trick? What's one trick you wish you had invented? [00:44:39] Speaker B: Knife through coat. I wish I invented Cavanese version of knife through coat. I am wildly jealous of that routine. There's not been a better one conceived. [00:44:48] Speaker A: Yeah, that is. [00:44:49] Speaker B: He's thought of everything. [00:44:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that. [00:44:51] Speaker B: That's online, that book. [00:44:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it's good. It's real good. [00:44:55] Speaker B: It's. Yeah. I wish I had invented it. [00:44:57] Speaker A: His trick with the toilet paper, though. His toilet paper act is flipping genius. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Everything Mike does. Everything Mike does is great. [00:45:04] Speaker A: But, you know, if you weren't a magician, what job would you most likely be doing today? [00:45:08] Speaker B: Teacher. [00:45:09] Speaker A: Nice. [00:45:09] Speaker B: I. I thought about being a science teacher. I was going to go into science and I just thought I did a co op. I guess you guys have co op. But in my high school, I did a co op and a science class. I thought a teacher is probably what I would do. That or maybe electrician. [00:45:21] Speaker A: Electrician is number one of the number one best jobs on the planet, along with plumbing and H vac. [00:45:27] Speaker B: All my. All my family are in the trades, so they all make fun of the electricians because they work indoors. It's warm. They're like. They're like. They're the prissy people. Yeah, yeah. They get paid well. And it's not that bad. [00:45:38] Speaker A: That's the one that will kill you the quickest, though. So that's where I'm like that, you know? [00:45:42] Speaker B: Correct. David Peck, who wrote that article in the Linking Ring, he was a professional electrician for decades. [00:45:48] Speaker A: Wow. Okay. [00:45:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. His hands have been all over all of my houses. He's worked on all sorts of stuff, but he's got great stories. You should interview him, too. [00:45:59] Speaker A: He's really good. I will do it. [00:46:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:46:01] Speaker A: This is the last one. If you're not doing magic, what's your favorite way to unwind? [00:46:04] Speaker B: For me, it's nerd stuff. So, you know, it's comic books. My son. This is so nerdy. But one of my friends gave my son the entire collection of Transformers comic books. [00:46:14] Speaker A: Books. [00:46:15] Speaker B: The original. Cool, right? So we're going through that. And now he's of an age where I get to go, hey, today we're going to Narnia. You know, nice. Or what? So it's all that kind of stuff. Yeah, that's what I do to unwind. And then the other thing is. Shame to say it on, but ham radio, you'll see it. Really? My ham radio rig is. Oh, it's behind the applause sign. Oh, wow. But yeah, that. That ham radio. Two big antennas in the backyard. And I sometimes get involved in the competitions or I make contacts all over. [00:46:42] Speaker A: Oh, that's. [00:46:43] Speaker B: Ham radio is a good way to. [00:46:44] Speaker A: So, yeah. Mine is Warhammer. Here's a. [00:46:47] Speaker B: So here's a. Do you watch a channel called Boyle Hobby Time? [00:46:51] Speaker A: The name is familiar, but boy, oh, boy, because he. [00:46:55] Speaker B: He mods those things. [00:46:56] Speaker A: Okay. I love it already. [00:46:58] Speaker B: You would love Boyle Hobby Time. It's great. And my son and I watch it and that's how he falls asleep most nights. We watch that. [00:47:03] Speaker A: And Boyle, like, the opposite of girly. [00:47:05] Speaker B: No, Boyle, like the fish. The. [00:47:07] Speaker A: We have. I live. I live where Rockfish are. I don't know what a Boyle is. [00:47:12] Speaker B: Like, now I'm the Boyle. Yeah. B, O, Y, L, E, I. Boyle, hobby time. [00:47:21] Speaker A: Like, wait, spell that again. Hold on. [00:47:25] Speaker B: The Canadian spelling is. [00:47:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, got it. Okay, cool. [00:47:33] Speaker B: This stuff is ridiculously good. [00:47:35] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:47:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:36] Speaker A: This is nuts. Okay, I'm already. I'm. I'm already. I'm on it. [00:47:39] Speaker B: We should probably never be, like. If we were, like, in a nerd room somewhere. We should never meet in a comic book store. We'll just never leave. [00:47:45] Speaker A: I will. I have a few. There's. There's. If you're ever down in Annapolis, there's a big one down called Third Eye. Third Eye Comics. It is a whole, like, three stores. One is all comic books, one is all music, and one is all games and like. Like, hobby. Hobby games. It is. It's. I've spent. Most of my money goes to them. [00:48:07] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. [00:48:08] Speaker A: But, yeah, you. You. You made it. You made it through the. You made it through the interrogation. [00:48:12] Speaker B: I feel. I feel proud. Didn't swear. [00:48:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:15] Speaker B: Didn't. I'm like, all right, me. The magician was on the cruise ship. [00:48:18] Speaker A: What a fantastic conversation with Matt Desero. I love, personally, how he blends sharp comedy with strong, thoughtful magic. I definitely didn't write this before I interviewed you. And his stories and insights are great reminders of great entertainment is about connection as much as about cleverness. If you enjoy this episode, make or subscribe so you don't miss future interviews with some of the most creative minds in magic who Matt Decero is going to introduce me to. And if you'd like to help the show grow, leave a rating or review. It really helps other magicians and fans discover the conversations. You can find out more about Matt and see where he's performing next by visiting mattdicero.com or following him on social media. Your Instagram account is hilarious. That orange shark is fantastic. [00:48:57] Speaker B: So the shark's gonna get me one day. [00:48:59] Speaker A: Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep. Keep creating, keep learning, and remember that magic begins with a story. Thank you, Ma Sam.