For Thinking Magicians Only

The “Magic From Wherever I’m At” podcast is for the thinking magician.

If you desire to move beyond moves, methods, and tricks…

and step into the wilderness of presentation and performance…

78 Episodes available so far for improving your magic.

>>>>>Click HERE for All Episodes

Subscribe to my (free) Daily Emails on improving your magic HERE!

You might also enjoy…

YouTube Magic is a Fraud

I “Soderbergh’d” Ricky jay’s 52 Assistants

Episode 78 – “The Kroger Precedent”

magician mentalist berglas

Episode 78 of the podcast deals with a weird story from a recent trip to the supermarket…

which I weave into an answer to a listener question about mentalism.

All Episodes HERE!

Subscribe to my (FREE) Daily Email on improving your magic HERE!

“I Soderbergh’d” Magician Ricky Jay and his “52 Assistants”

From the email list…

So yesterday (Halloween)…

I sent an email where I linked to a special “version” of…

Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

It was a version in black & white with the original audio removed…

and replaced with an alternative instrumental track.

This was provided by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh on his website (linked below.)

Inspired by watching it again (the night before I shared it in the email)…

and a conversation with a fellow magician (and listener/email subscriber)…

I then “Soderbergh’d” Ricky Jay’s “52 Assistants.

So now you can learn about staging, in the context of a great magic show.

Contrast and compare techniques used in film and in theatre.

Off to the races…

If you want to see the black & white, alternative-audio version of  “52 Assistants”…

this is the kind of content I share in my FREE Dail Emails on improving your magic.

You can Subscribe by Click HERE!

Here’s the link to the Steven Soderbergh’s version of “Raiders” on his website…

Steven Soderbergh “Raiders”

 

 

The Time I Met magician Tom Mullica

This Episode 13 teaser talks about the great fun I had at the Abbotts Get Together talking with Tom Mullica (R.I.P.)

Full episode HERE

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Episode 77 – “The Graduate”

Episode 77 is here!

This episode deals with Roberto Giobbi’s latest book “Hidden Agenda”…

and musing on one of my favorite films.

The Magic Mayor of Jackson Square

In this Episode 12 teaser…

I talk about the first time I met the de facto mayor of Jackson Square in New Orleans…

Warpo!

Full episode HERE!

Subscribe to my Daily Emails on improving your magic (it’s FREE)!

The Magic of Thinking Clearly

From the email list…

Self-delusion.

It’s a valuable survival mechanism.

Years ago I read a book I highly recommend called…

“The Hidden Brain.”

It was all about your subconscious running your life.

The author has since turned it into an NPR podcast and I highly recommend it.

Just this week I delved into a book called…

“Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief.”

I’m constantly checking my own thinking.

It’s important also to understand why people believe what they believe.

It helps you understand both yourself and others more effectively.

As a result of my voracious reading habits, I am well acquainted with the many biases we all suffer from.

It is why I continue to follow the latest scientific developments…

and check my own beliefs against the evolving landscape.

Long before I became a magician I was well aware of these kinds of thinking problems.

Then when I began to study magic, the reality of how easily deceptive everything is…

was crystal clear.

Therefore, it is important to scrutinize these things instead of just take everything at face value.

This also leads to understanding instead of just knowing.

A clear distinction.

As time moves forward, and we become better and more equipped as a species to scrutinize…

and test our ideas and beliefs…

old beliefs fall by the wayside…

often in a dramatic burst of destruction

where it is obvious to a wide swath of people…

the old beliefs were simple fairy tales.

A good example of this is in the martial arts.

Growing up I took judo.

For about a year or so.

Never really cared for it.

I’m sure it toughened me up somewhat though and was a replacement of sorts for my father…

pulling me out of hockey.

He didn’t care for “hockey parents.”

I was a fan of Bruce Lee as well and watched all his films.

This probably spurred my love for film more than my love for martial arts…

yet it was pretty clear there were all these different martial arts…

some “mainstreams” and some on the fringe.

Many of them had an almost religious-like quality to them.

You’d see ads in the back of comic books for these weird systems.

A lot of it tied in spiritual beliefs and mysticism.

I wasn’t super immersed…

but I knew of these almost “Jedi-like” claims and stories…

of almost supernatural ability and secret mythic techniques.

Very hush-hush, inner-circle shit.

And then when I was about 19…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship emerged.

My father purchased the very first event…

UFC 1…

via pay-per-view…

and some of my high school buddies and I along with my father…

watched this event with anticipation.

They marketed it as the battle of all the martial arts.

To see which one was the BEST.

Which one worked in the real world.

In a real fight.

At least a fight with very few restrictions.

The evolution of that event and the world of MMA since did one thing spectacularly…

more than only entertain or horrify (depending on your persuasion)…

it laid waste to all the mysticism and fringe beliefs in the martial arts world.

At least to anyone who pays any actual attention.

It demolished many, many martial arts practices as simple fairy tales.

It snatched the rug out from all the pretenders.

It was one of the quickest and most decisive “scientific” battles of ideologies in the history of mankind…

in my opinion.

Belief change is hard though.

Our frail human minds are wired to believe in weird, outlandish, and often destructive things as a mechanism
of self-preservation.

whether it’s physically, or to preserve the way we think about ourselves…

often to shield us from reality – even to our own detriment.

Just this morning while combing over some reaction punditry to the latest Star Wars trailer…

I stumbled across a guy talking about the martial art he is pursuing and it was exactly…

the same mysticism and fairy tales eradicated, brutally…

with kicks, punches, armbars, and chokeholds…

with UFC 1 decades ago.

Yet, there he is…

unfazed.

Which always brings me back to one of my favorite quotes (paraphrasing)…

“To those who understand no explanation is necessary. To those who don’t, no explanation is possible.”

which kind are YOU?

To better magic,
Dartagnan

P.S. You can join my free Daily Emails on improving your magic by clicking here!

 

A Magician Learns: The Rise of Skywalker Final Trailer

From today’s email…

I am writing this email…

moments from the release of the final trailer for…

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

I didn’t bother to watch any of the crap Monday Night Football game it’s being premiered during…

I just set reminders for my favorite YouTube channels and opened twitter right before halftime.

As a magician and a marketer…

these events are full of takeaways because they are mass, global events.

Just like the Avengers movies or Game of Thrones.

To understand their appeal gives you insight into how people think and act.

What greases their gears so to speak.

Only Tolkien’s work captured my imagination like Star Wars as a kid.

I would pretend to be Luke Skywalker…

Han Solo…

Chewbacca…

and more often…

Darth Vader…

in my backyard as a kid.

Many, many All Hallows Eve I had a lightsaber in my mitten’d, Canadian hands.

The re-start of these new movies ushered in a whole new generation of love for the brainchild of George Lucas.

I even have part of my street show swaddled in a Star Wars presentation.

Every day I see people wearing Star Wars tees.

The force is alive and well.

I have enjoyed the latest movies on an ever-increasing scale.

I enjoyed “The Force Awakens.”

I loved “The Last Jedi” even more.

and I’m looking forward to this “Final” installment of the Skywalker saga.

As I’m reading twitter…

people are firing up their home theaters.

Hanging on every new post and TV commercial.

The clock to halftime has ticked down.

Everyone is waiting.

I’m with 4000 other people on Collider waiting to see what’s up.

MAN!!!!!

I just watched it 6 times.

Loved it.

The look of it is breathtaking.

One shot of Kylo is spectacular. The perfect beat for a magic show.

Which is really what all of this IS.

Begs more questions too…

which is exactly what it should do.

>>>>>> Click HERE and WATCH it for Yourself

May the force be with you, always…
Dartagnan

PLUS: Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways I can help you.

1. Listen to “Magic From Wherever I’m At”
Stories and personal rants on magic, street performing and the life of an itinerant wizard – Click Here.

2. Need A Professional Entertainer For Your Event?
Specializing in private events from 300 to 3000. See if I’m available to help your next event become unforgettable.  – Click Here.

3. Warpo Files
I interviewed New Orleans Street Magician (and one of my personal mentors) Warpo for 10+ hours. Send an email to dartagnanmagic@gmail.com and tell me you want it by putting “Warpo files” in the subject line. I’ll get back to you ASAP and show you how to get it.

Double Magic Dose Sunday: Part 2

Free from food poisoning this is the 2nd part of Double Dose Sunday!

Enjoy listening to the many ways the work of Roberto Giobbi has impacted me.

Double Magic Dose Sunday: Part One

I’m back from food poisoning and making up for not releasing a podcast last week while bedridden.

So this is the first of TWO (2) episodes released today!

Page 2 of 5

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