[Music] you’re listening to magic from wherever I’m at with your host the magician time traveler and charmer d’Artagnan [Music] welcome to the first edition of the magic from wherever I’m at podcast and I am your host d’Artagnan it’s an exciting new project for me I’ve been sort of wanting to write a series of books about my street performing career thus far which has a spanned most of the last five years but this won’t be a street performing how-to or really a magic how-to per se this will really be more of probably stories and updates to whatever I’m up to wherever location and I’m at for the last five years I’ve been in 29 different cities if memory serves me and performed at some fabulous venues and so we’ll get into some of those stories this is basically just stories I want to get down you know posthumously if you will so we have some record of these exciting things that have happened to me thus letting people I’ve met people I’ve learned from just you know because writing them down by and large is just a pain in the ass quite frankly so let’s start off with Who I am so my name is d’Artagnan and I’ve been a magician from the Blastoise I think it’s almost 16 years now I started really late at 28 which people have seen my show on the street me know that’s how the show opens now what’s interesting about that is for the first you know almost 10 or 11 years it started as a hobbyist and then I started doing paid gigs at the time I was in Winnipeg Manitoba and I sort of kept those paid gigs sort of separate from the rest of my life at the time because magic was sort of you know a passion of mine but it didn’t really mix well I don’t think with the red the things I was up to and so I find it fascinating that the path has led me to here now and you know working on the street as a street performer as a street magician in the tradition that dates back to the very beginning of magic has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done and it certainly has done wonders for my magic and for my understanding of what’s important in magic and I’ve learned from so many awesome people you know which we’ll get to in some of the episodes that I just want to use this as part of a giving back to the whole community if people listen to this I want them to take away maybe some fun stories but also you know some lessons because this is such an age old art and yet in many ways I feel is constantly maligned by the practitioners themselves which is unfortunate now you know why did I go on to the street well we’ll get into this in a different podcast in a more overview type way but for me it was an opportunity to travel I could take something I was already doing and use it to travel and explore different places meet new people and enrich myself with different cultures you know that I could learn from I mean when you travel and you meet new people and you experience different cultures you grow as a person hopefully and it just exposes you to so many different ways of thinking that perhaps you’ve never been exposed to before and so as a result it changes your life in many meaningful ways and the amount of connections I made with people all over the globe is almost insane to even think of when I look back now I mean I’ve met people from I mean I don’t know if every country but it’s like you have a very large number of countries and it’s interesting to see the different relationships that the different people from different destinations have with encountering a magician and that’s one of the things that I think is so interesting about doing magic on the street as opposed to when I did it before you know more private parties or when I do it now for private parties or weddings or whatever it may be it’s that you get such a diverse crowd you get so many diverse people from all walks of life in your audience and that almost a no other venue is that the case you know maybe in something like a restaurant or something would be closest but it’s still so different because most people never encounter a magician firsthand you know they probably have an uncle that does a few tricks at the you know family reunion or whatever but they never encounter a real magician now one of the things I’m going to do with this podcast is besides tell stories of interesting people you know I’ve met interesting situations I’ve been in and interesting shows that have done which they speak highly and not so highly of whatever helped to but also I think an important aspect of this podcast that I hope is to help other people pursue what they’re passionate about I mean this may be about magic this may be how you find this is may be about performing in general but this also should be a hopefully is somewhat of a clarion call to do what you’re passionate about you know all the friends I’ve made in street performing over these last almost five years now are some of the sharpest you know most passionate people who are out there motivated many times by something other than reward and who are trying to you know put the good into the world to enrich it in ways you know that they offer from their own goodness of their heart and their own passions and so this is a very important aspect I think whilst you performing because people like I said before do not encounter magicians on a normal run of the course of life I mean I don’t know how many times somebody has said to me you know I’ve never seen a magician up close life before I mean it’s a very rare occurrence I may only have but once or twice in a person’s entire life and this leads back to something else I’d like to impart through this podcast is I’m gonna have I’ve sort of affectionately termed it a rant section of the show but I don’t want it to be an angry sort of banging the gavel you know getting on a soapbox you know don’t do this kind of scenario what I’d more like it to be is to pass along some of the wisdom that I’ve gained from other people teaching me and also through the school of hard knocks which has just been going out and failing and doing things different ways and finding sort of ways that have produced the best results you know and hope that I’ve garnered me the most enjoyment and the most real connection with people in the audience and I think that magic suffers from a large number of things we’ll get into in some of these episodes but the first thing it suffers from I think is that there are a lot of people out there and and we’ll get into this a bit in a second with our sort of rant section you know I want these things to maybe be you know under a story or something for the first 10 or quote-unquote rant section at the end and the rant hopefully sometimes will probably get out of hand a little bit because I’m passionate about these things but I wanted to help other people so if they you know are coming up in this field not only it’s just magic but street performing or combination thereof or pursue other variety arts that they wish to do in other venues and or on the street but they will be able to take something away that makes them think even if they don’t agree and that’s that’s sort of the last objective is these are my opinions you know I’ve formulated these through my own personal experiences testing out things others have shown and taught to me and your opinions are gonna vary you know it may be completely polar opposite in some cases I’ll usually try to explain why I have a certain opinions but you know this is the beauty of living in a quote unquote free ish Society is to be able to express yourself in a way that is wholly your own and people can take it or leave it so at the very least I hope to make you think a little bit about it and I’ll try not to sound like an angry Rancher and more of trying to impart some yoda-like wisdom perhaps I’ve been able to glean from some of my exploits and so that brings us to the first sort of rant which will conclude this episode this very first episode I think magic suffers first and foremost from too many people calling themselves magicians who can’t really live up to that title now I’m gonna give you a start off by giving you sort of a metaphorical relationship between different things you know I’ve learned to play guitar in my life I’ve learned about computers you know pretty extensively I’ve broken certainly enough of them to know how they work cars much the same experience all matter a few years ago I fixed some break after watching a YouTube video mind you I fixed some brake lines on my friend’s driveway in New Orleans and through all those things you know I don’t count myself among IT professionals mechanics you know or musicians you know of any sort I would never label myself that way and this is something that I think crops up over and over again and magically there’s people who learn a few tricks and then call themselves a magician and I would say that that is wholly irresponsible I mean of those people claiming them because not only are you somewhat making a fool of yourself but you’re also denigrating an art you know that goes back to what the 1300s or something I mean what’s the latest you know I don’t know but an art that’s been around forever I once heard Ricky Jay say Moore’s been written about magic than any other art I don’t know if that’s true but you know you’re doing a disservice to your art by calling yourself a magician just like I’d feel like I’d be doing myself a disservice because I watched a YouTube video fix some brake lines and then decide to call myself a mechanic right and this largely stems from the trick part of it when people learn tricks they think that you know especially people who are not as deeply involved in it they think the trick is the most important part and it’s actually one of the least important parts so I mean it’s it’s basically like if you’re gonna build a house you were due to start with the foundation the tricks and a technique so magic are basically the foundation everything else that then becomes the house above that is more important and we’ll get into that as these episodes go forward so today I’d like to leave you with something which I have passed on to some of my other friends and again which you will be free to disagree with I’m sure and that is my definition of what a magician actually is you know and to me a magician is only a person who performs regularly for people that they don’t know at all right so that’s the I think the crux of this whole thing because when you perform for people that you do know especially in magic which I have learned there’s a lot of back slapping and stuff going on and magic about like you know and and in society in general I would say there’s a lot of like a for effort it seems like standards are going down or people just like as long as you give a you know as long as you give your a effort Timmy you know we’re gonna pass you I mean no one no one fails grades anymore nobody wants to put a dent in anyone’s self-esteem you know but to me a magician is someone who performs for people they don’t know you know regularly not just someone who performs to their friends and family or the local magic club because the ultimate arbiter of whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish with magic and that is the performance of it I would hope is that you need some sort of feedback mechanism for people to give you you know some sort of idea of what you’re doing is any good and this is one thing the street is very good at because if you are not of what you’re doing is not good I mean you get crushed immediately nobody watches nobody certainly tips you or pays and it’s over you know they just leave because they’re it’s such a free and open medium and venue from which to work and so it’s very specific and it’s critique because you start to learn very quickly what is important no matter the medium in this case magic but could be music could be you know being a statue it could be a number of things you learn very quickly what connects you to other people and what doesn’t and so for me I only call people magicians who work for people they don’t know and who work that’s the other thing who actually perform you know there’s many ways to be involved in magic which are valid you know collecting memorabilia a magic history you know going to be part of the local magic club and stuff but all those things in my mind and in my opinion fall short of the main crux of being involved in magic which is performing you know it is a performance art first and everything else is a distant second you know and you can only really appreciate magic if you’re actually performing for real people and certainly people you don’t know because there’s a lot of the techniques and methods of all the magic that you cannot learn by reading a book or just watching other people it’s impossible so the takeaway from this episode should be two things stop calling yourself a magician if all you know is tricks and you don’t do magic we’ll get into what that means in the next episode and second of all you know you should strive to perform you should strive to perform for people you don’t know if you want to call yourself a magician that is the criteria I think you should be meaning you may disagree but you know give it a long hard look are you worried about protecting your ego or are you worried more about are you able to connect people through the media and connect with people through the medium of magic and we’re gonna stop there for now that’s my quote unquote rant for episode number one I want to thank you for listening and hope you’ll join me in future episodes it won’t won’t always be funny and light-hearted I’m sure but it’ll be a journey that I think we can take together and all learn some from I’ll learn something from because I will learn more about what I’m doing by trying to explain some of these ideas and notions that I’ve had some of my own opinions and and try to transfer that knowledge and this is one of the reasons why I’m doing this podcast so without further adieu we’ll leave it there for today if you enjoy magic from wherever I’m at with myself d’Artagnan you can connect with me on the various social media d’Artagnan magic on Facebook Instagram you go to d’Artagnan magic calm to see the latest episodes and stuff there’s a mailing list there so you can be the first person to be notified you know when new episodes go live and whatnot and I want to thank you for listening I’m very excited about this project I’m very excited about you know helping other people find their way like people helped me and so we’ll see you in the next episode [Music] you