Episode 1

The year starts at full tilt with a lively, unfiltered catch‑up with Craig Petty, and the energy doesn’t dip. We trade holiday war stories, talk honestly about the grind that comes with constant touring, and why a New Year health reset can be the most effective “upgrade” a performer makes. From there, the conversation opens up into creative planning, practical gear, and the routines that actually hold up in loud rooms, tight turnarounds, and unpredictable crowds.

We dig into Alakazam’s Elite Coin Range and a forthcoming project Craig’s wanted to make since Mirage—the kind of table‑free, angle‑tolerant coin magic that makes grown adults scream. On the card side, Craig shares why the Z Fold wallet remains a savage utility when you stop treating it like a one‑trick method and start treating it like a switchable engine for predictions, transformations, and misdirection‑driven card to wallet sequences. Then a big headline: The 1914 has joined the Alakazam family, keeping its identity while gaining the muscle to restock Shadow Wallet, Orphic, Eclipse and more, with UK/US fulfilment and a pipeline of long‑brewing releases. The Castle Wallet teaser seals the deal for EDC lovers.

If you want something you can use tonight, Craig teaches a tight, spectator‑involved four‑ace routine using dropped doubles and a deceptive placement that lives under heat. He also adds a playful variant for family crowds that turns a simple utility into a running gag with a clean kicker. Along the way we cover walk‑around philosophy: build flexible sets, pick closers with a definitive end beat, and carry tools that reset fast and hit hard—Atomic Deck, E2, Toxic, Mirage finales, jumbo coin productions—so you can read the room and still land big reactions.

Planning for Blackpool, academies, and curated Maverick pouches with complete mini‑acts round out a forward‑looking session that mixes craft, candour, and real‑world utility. If you care about workers, restocks, and routines that earn applause cues instead of polite smiles, you’ll feel at home here. Enjoy the ride, then subscribe, share with a friend who loves smart workers, and drop us a review with the trick or insight you’re stealing for your next gig.

Chapters

• 0:00 New Year Live And Guest Intro
• 2:20 Holiday Gigs And Upcoming Releases
• 5:45 Elite Coin Range Tease And Production Timeline
• 9:30 Fitness Reset And Life On The Road
• 13:45 Community Q&A And Netrix VMC Dates
• 18:10 Podcasts, X-Rated Tone, And Listener Buzz
• 21:50 Pseudo Pickpocket Credit Card Routine Plans
• 26:30 Z Fold Wallet Project Reactions And Uses
• 30:40 The 1914 Joins Alakazam Announcement
• 34:20 Choosing Coin Sets For Walk-Around
• 38:10 Spellman, West End Show, And Convention Hype
• 43:20 Nardi On Performing Again And Double Act Plans
• 47:20 Craig’s Walk-Around Closers And Tools
• 52:00 Why Some Products Aren’t Stocked Immediately
• 56:10 Castle Wallet Teaser And Restock Strategy
• 1:00:20 Notify-Me System And US/UK Shipping
• 1:03:40 Live Card Trick Teach: Four Aces
• 1:10:20 Bonus “Most Irritating Card Trick” Utility

Transcript

SPEAKER_04: 0:28

Hi guys and happy new year to you all. Um, this is our first live pack. Um, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and a fantastic new year. Um, this is our first live of 2026. So welcome. And for this live, I've got a very special guest joining us. Um, so let me introduce him. He should be here, and hopefully, I can hear him because we didn't have time to test. It is the legend that is Mr. Craig Petty. Hey Pete. How's you? How are you? I'm good.

SPEAKER_06: 1:08

Very, very well, thank you, mate. I'm very, very well. Can you hear me okay?

SPEAKER_04: 1:12

Yep. Yep, you're all good. So, how was your Christmas, Mr. Petty?

SPEAKER_06: 1:17

Um, absolutely mental, to be perfectly honest. It's um it was really busy up until the 23rd of December. I was just like gig, gig, gig, gig, gig. Um, just a ridiculous amount of gigs. Um, but then I went away for a few days. We hired a little cottage up at Lincoln and we just went away for Christmas, which was amazing because we didn't have to put Christmas decorations up or take them down. Um so so we went to this little uh cottage, we had Christmas over there, hung out with Sarah's family who live in Lincoln, that was nice, and um then came back and carried on with the geeks, and um and now it's it's new year and it's it's still really busy, so it it's good, it's good, but uh it it never slows down, does it?

SPEAKER_04: 2:03

That's the thing.

SPEAKER_06: 2:04

Well, no, I'm out I'm out all next week with the legend himself, Mr. Nemid Phoenix. We're filming about 17,000 Alakazam products over the next week and a half. Like I'm literally just filming stuff for you guys over the next week, so yeah, and I can't wait.

SPEAKER_04: 2:19

I can't wait. In fact, we have got our next release is a Craig Petty product, which is happening later on in the year. So um, Jamie was working on a teaser. I'm gonna check YouTube in a minute to see if he's put it up now. I don't think it's ready yet. Um, but that's our next release. So keep your eye out on our emails for a date because I can't remember the date. I think it might be the last Thursday.

SPEAKER_06: 2:46

I have got the text that you sent me to make sure that I was completely I'm organised here, Pete. I'm totally 100% organised. So you sent me a thing saying that 29th, Tuesday the 29th.

SPEAKER_04: 2:59

Tuesday the 29th. So there you go.

SPEAKER_06: 3:02

And I don't know what I'm allowed to say about this. I don't know what I can say, what I can't say.

SPEAKER_04: 3:07

Well, you usually say what you want to say.

SPEAKER_06: 3:09

So all I'll tell you is this is the next edition to the Alakazamal Ecoin range.

SPEAKER_03: 3:16

Oh, yes, it is.

SPEAKER_06: 3:17

Um, which I think is probably, no, I don't think probably, definitely, the number one range of coins, you know, in in the world right now, you know, with the people that have bought stuff out through there, you know, Chabloon, Mike Stevens, Dave Luce Lee, the list goes on and on. It's incredible. And this particular product that's that's coming out on the 29th, it's one that I've wanted to do probably since I originally bought out the Mirage coin set 20 odd years ago. I've wanted to do a project on this one thing. Um, because it's it's my it's one of my favourite plots in CoinMagic, and there's not that much work on it, there's not that much literature on it. And you'll see when you see the live performances that when you do this one trick, it causes people, grown people, to literally scream and run away. It's super uh super practical. Um, you don't need a table, you don't there's no really any angle issues. Um, there's lots of different ways of doing it. Uh it's relatively easy to do, but you can make it harder if you want to. Um yeah, and it's it's it's full and in-depth as you would expect with an elite coin range product. It's uh it's something I'm yeah, I'm really excited about as well. I can't want to yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 4:26

I I've got a question for you. Did you use the original tutorial? Did we use the original tutorial or did you do it again?

SPEAKER_06: 4:33

Yeah, because so it's an amalgamation of two. So the first half where you teach the main routine was shot in the Alakazam studio.

SPEAKER_04: 4:40

So that was shot almost two years ago. More than two years ago. Like I don't know if you know this, Pete.

SPEAKER_06: 4:46

I didn't even come to Alakazam last year. I wasn't even at Ashford because everything that I was filming, I was filming remotely over here. Yeah. So I never made it to Ashford once, which you know, I know Rockis has missed me, if nothing else. Um we've all missed you, Craig. Yeah, I'm excited. Um, so it's and and we filmed it. Uh I I would say it's about two and a half years ago that we filmed the main tutorial.

SPEAKER_03: 5:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 5:11

Um, but then me and Nemid filmed about an extra two hours worth of material as well of just bonus ideas that you can use this for, and how to make it easier and how to make it a little bit more complicated, depending on your your skill level with coins.

SPEAKER_04: 5:25

Yeah, yeah, brilliant. Well, there's a few people watching, so I'm gonna say hello. Uh it's a lovely for some reason I can't get the comments on the screen, so I don't I don't know why. But Keith said, Craig, you're looking healthy. Are you hitting the gym? You are looking there there was a video you put up the other day, and I was watching it, and I thought, Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_06: 5:50

Since the first of January, I've been on a hardcore kind of diet, stroke, exercise regime. Um, and and to be completely honest and open, like I I, you know, when I many, many years ago I was I was I was quite overweight, and then I lost all of the weight, and I kept it off for years and years and years, and then COVID hit. And and COVID messed me up really bad, and I ended up putting a lot of weight on. And I continued to have that weight on me all after COVID because you know what it's like, uh Pete running a business after, and I'm sure a lot of people do that watch this. After after COVID, it was just a whirlwind of like, I've got to do this, I've got to do this, I've got to do this. And it was like running around doing gigs to try and put money back in the bank account because you couldn't perform for like two years. So I was just getting so much junk food on the on the road, and I was like, okay, McDonald's at one o'clock in the morning, McDonald's uh the you know uh there were some days where I'd be leaving the house so early, the only option would be a McDonald's on the road, and then a McDonald's at lunchtime, and then we you know it was it was ridiculous. So um, and and and I I I've carried on putting on weight, and it's just I I kind of said at the new year enough is enough. So um, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 7:02

Um you're looking really healthy.

SPEAKER_06: 7:04

I'm I'm planning on looking ripped and shredded by Magic Life. Um, so I'm gonna yeah, yeah, six pack by Magic Life, that's the goal. There you go.

SPEAKER_04: 7:13

Well, there you go. So, but no, mate, honestly, you you look great. Look really but it I I totally get that sort of when you're on the road, it is, it's just grabbing a sausage roll or a pasty or something like that.

SPEAKER_06: 7:27

Especially when you're doing big illusion shows as well. Like it's not so bad with a close-up gig because you just rock up with a case and you open up the case, and you can normally but when you're doing an illusion show, you've got to get there like three hours ahead of time, you've got to load all the equipment in. Um, it's it there's no time to breathe.

SPEAKER_04: 7:44

There's just and you are doing stuff all over the country. You're in a van, that's the problem. You're in a van for five hours to do a 40-minute show. Yeah, you know, so you are you're just grabbing stuff at services, yeah. That's um that's great. No, you're looking good. Let me have a look. So there's a lot of uh things coming in at the moment. Uh so David Smith.

SPEAKER_06: 8:09

Well, as I'm here on the magic, as I'm here on this live, by the way, if anybody's got any questions uh that I can answer about anything, please let me know. I'd be more than happy to.

SPEAKER_04: 8:17

Yeah, well, let's say a few elos here. We've got David Smith, he said absolutely love Alexam, and also big thanks to Craig for all he does for magic. Um, Ian Raymond Walker's here, Anthony Povey's here, Paul Dempsey's here, Jake Paulson's here. Uh Jake, if you message me on Facebook or send an email to sales at Alexam.co.uk, we can get that sorted out for you. That's not a problem. Um someone said, What's today's topic? Today's topic can be anything you like. If you've got any questions for Craig, drop them in. Um are the VMC dates for January. What's VMC dates?

SPEAKER_06: 9:08

Um, so in the Netrix, uh, we have these things called virtual magic clubs.

SPEAKER_03: 9:13

Ah.

SPEAKER_06: 9:13

Um and the four dates have been set. Uh the process is I've sent them over to Sarah.

SPEAKER_03: 9:19

Yep.

SPEAKER_06: 9:20

Um, Sarah now uh creates all the Zoom links and then sends them over to Michael, and then Michael sets them up on the website and puts them in the community. Michael's come back from work today and he's playing catch-up, so they'll either go in the communities of the Netrix today or tomorrow. Um, but I can tell you that the four dates are uh and no one's gonna find this interesting other than people that are in the Netrix, but the 13th of January, the 18th of January, the 25th of January, and the 31st of January. So there you go.

SPEAKER_04: 9:50

Perfect. Um we've got mostly amazing Gary who says, Craig, I'm loving the post podcast with Lloyd.

SPEAKER_06: 10:00

Well, you know what? That podcast, you know, you know this, Pete. That podcast has been around for years. Yes. But Lloyd got very busy. He had a a second child, and um, you know, kind of got very busy renovating his house, and so we ended up doing it like very sporadically, and we kind of said to each other at the end of November, you know, we kind of missed doing it. Um, so should we bring the podcast back? And and we both agreed to it, and uh, it's been a lot of fun. I've really enjoyed doing it. It's it's but you know, the podcast is different to anything else out there, it's just it's it's very X-rated, it's very kind of you know, the language and the subject matter. Um I think that's why it's got a following. You know, so many people are enjoying the podcast being back. I just filmed one this morning, so the one for tomorrow is filmed and in the bag. Um, and we actually spent quite a long time talking about Alakazam as well, Pete.

SPEAKER_04: 10:52

Lovely, that's what I like to hear. I I will be listening to it. It's still become my shower listen again.

SPEAKER_06: 10:59

Uh well, well, I wouldn't expect anything else, either.

SPEAKER_04: 11:03

Um, let's have a look. I think there's a few questions coming in. Uh Danny Rag said, I've heard Craig does a terrible watch still, but has an amazing pseudo credit card packet trick. When's it out? Ask him for a friend.

SPEAKER_06: 11:23

Well, Pete, you need to come back on the screen with me for that one. So this this packet I've been performing. I'm not surprised people are talking about that because that's my convention trick. For the last maybe six months to a year, that's been the trick that I've been performing at conventions going, hey, let me show you something. Um and it I it's up to you, Pete. I mean, it's an Alakazam trick. We're talking about the uh uh the the pseudo pigpocketing routine. From my point of view, we filmed the tutorial for that. Me and Nemed filmed the tutorial for that in November. We have yet to film the performances. That's on the schedule to film next week. Um so by the end of next week, the performances will be done, um, the tutorials will be done, and Nemed will then get on with the trailer. But uh from our from my point of view, it's done. It's a it's a basically for those of you that don't know what it is, it's it's it's probably the strongest piece of pickpocketing you'll ever see. And it's a true ED seat. You just bring some credit cards out of your wallet, you have them uh you show them to the spectator very, very freely. There's no nothing dodgy going on. They hold them in their hand and you can uh steal a credit card out of their hand. Um it's it's it's just really strong, it's it's ridiculous. Um and it's always in my wallet. I've got my wallet over here, uh, which is an Orphic wallet for the 1914, and inside that wallet lives that trick. It's so new it hasn't even got a name yet, I don't think. Or it might have got a name, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04: 12:52

Uh I can't remember if we gave it a name.

SPEAKER_06: 12:55

We must have, because I did the tutorial. Oh. So I I wouldn't have done the tutorial. So Nemid will know what the name is, but I can't remember. But it's it's really cool, and the whole thing has been designed by Phil Smith. It's one of three tricks that you and I are bringing out that are Phil Smith creations. There's that, there's the word search thing, and then there's the Christmas thing that we're working on right now. So but but the the pickpocket thing, I don't know, it's up to you, Pete. It's it's effectively done from from our point of view.

SPEAKER_04: 13:24

Yeah, I just need the artwork for the cards, and we can get those all.

SPEAKER_06: 13:28

You got them. We gave them to you. Oh, have yeah? Phil sent it over to you.

SPEAKER_04: 13:32

I'll have a check. That would have come through to Andy then, so I'll I'll check with Andy.

SPEAKER_06: 13:36

Yeah, I mean, the thing is, I mean, Alakazam, it's it's kind of an interesting thing. Alakazam is not the Craig Petty show. You know, they've got so many different tricks that they bring out through so many different uh uh creators, and I've got a load of stuff that we filmed and that we are filming that's ready to go. You can't just bring out a Craig Petty trick every two weeks. I mean, who would want that?

SPEAKER_04: 13:59

Yeah, we've got we've got enough to do that. But we are um we are sort of gearing up after Blackpool. We should be getting back to two releases uh a month, I think, because things are starting to to to stack up again. We're getting back into it. There's a lot of comments, a lot of people watching. Uh let me have a look here.

SPEAKER_06: 14:27

Uh tell you guys, by the way, thank you so much. While Pete's looking for a question, thank you so much for all the love for the Z Fold wallet project that came out uh on Black Friday uh with Alakazam. I really appreciate that. I love doing those big projects. Um and and and I feel like we've really built something, Pete, you know, Alakazam, and you know, with you know, the Mirage deck and the Svengali deck and and the Z Fold and the Purse Frame and everything. And you know, the the the next one is the is the mental photography deck, which is very, very exciting. But uh, you know, yeah, I I had such great feedback about the Z Fold wallet project.

SPEAKER_04: 15:02

We we did as well. I mean, it it's one of those product. I mean, the Z Fold wallet in my mind is one of the most powerful tools we can own as a magician or a mentalist. And the problem is we tend to get a Z fold with a trick. You buy a trick, and your the method is a Z fold. You do the trick, great, you don't do the trick anymore, Z fold goes in the the drawer. But it's such a powerful tool for multiple routines, and some of the root I mean they're all great, but some of the routines on that video are knockout killer. I mean, they're they're really strong, strong routines, you know. Um, yeah, it's such a good download. If you've got a Z-fold and you haven't downloaded this yet, download it because it will really change your opinion on the tool that you know that you're using, the Z Fold.

SPEAKER_06: 16:04

Well, Alec, uh Andy Gladwin messaged me, just sent me a text message out of the blue the other day, just saying, you know the misdirection card to wallet of the Z Fold Wallet project where you've got the card that says misdirection of both sides? He just messaged me out of the blue and he said, Hey, I love that card to wallet concept with the Z Fold wallet, really good.

SPEAKER_04: 16:21

Yeah, so it's great. It's great. I mean, it there's so many uses for that wallet. There really are. And the the great thing about your projects is you really do dive deep and explore absolutely everything. So, you know, you're not gonna go out and perform 30 routines with this wallet, but what you want is you want to look through a project like this and pick your three favorites, four favorites, and these become your go-to routines, and you're not gonna do every one at every table, but it now means you can mix it up, so you've got different routines everywhere, um, and they are they're phenomenal. Um, so let me have a quick scan down here. Someone asked actually, can we discuss upcoming releases through the 1914? I have actually got a teaser I'm gonna play in uh in a moment.

SPEAKER_07: 17:20

Very exciting.

SPEAKER_04: 17:22

Um, someone else just joined us said, is there going to be an Alexam release this month? Yes, there is. Uh, we did discuss it a little bit earlier on the 23rd of this month. We have got a brand new Elite Coin Range project.

SPEAKER_06: 17:37

The 29th, I think, Pete.

SPEAKER_04: 17:39

29th.

unknown: 17:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 17:40

Tuesday, the 29th. Um, and it's by Craig Petty, and it's a new uh addition to the Elite Coin Range. So join us for the live launch. We will send out details in our emails as well when we get nearer to the time. Um another question come in. Uh, do you and Craig plan to release any additional routines for the E2? Um, I plan to release some more this year. Um, hopefully, Craig will uh have some routines. Have I sent you an E2, haven't I?

SPEAKER_06: 18:15

I know you've if you remember, I said that you were going to, but you didn't.

SPEAKER_04: 18:18

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_06: 18:18

I'll do why not because I've got the routines ready to film. Me and Nam are gonna film them next week. I've got to answer the question, I've got 10 routines with the E2 that are completely different to anything that you and Speltman did. Uh going in completely a different direction. And me and Nem have got it scheduled onto the filming for next week. So, yes.

SPEAKER_04: 18:36

Uh I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna message Andy right now while we're talking and get a stick one in the post to you just so I don't forget.

SPEAKER_06: 18:47

Uh I've already got one, obviously, but I wanted to open up a new one on camera.

SPEAKER_03: 18:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 18:54

Uh I've I've gone on record, I've done videos and I've done uh I've done lists. I think the the extractor 2, the E2, I I think it's probably the greatest utility for card magicians ever created. I don't think there's anything that touches it. Um it's just remarkable. Absolutely remarkable.

SPEAKER_03: 19:12

Thank you, mate. Uh let me there we go. Boom, done. Bang.

SPEAKER_04: 19:19

Right. That's done. That will be going out for you now. Question uh let me have a look. Is Craig still planning on doing these academy mixing all the elite coin range effects to we've got we've got a couple of different academies there?

SPEAKER_06: 19:41

I I will be coming up to Alakazam this year.

SPEAKER_04: 19:43

It was supposed to happen last year, but time just got away with us.

SPEAKER_06: 19:49

But now it just means that I'm gonna be able to make the academy even longer because I can include Chabloon and I can include um the the the uh the bag reborn and I can include. All those other amazing gimmicks that Alakazama bought out. So yes. My plan is to do an academy that's roughly 10 hours long. I want to beat Spellman and Mark Paul and uh and keep keep Pete up until like six o'clock in the morning doing magic. So that's the that's the goal.

SPEAKER_02: 20:17

I'm just gonna double check this day. Did I text it to you? What what have you got as a date?

SPEAKER_06: 20:27

I got the 29th of uh I got the 29th, Pete.

SPEAKER_02: 20:31

Which is a Thursday, isn't it?

SPEAKER_06: 20:33

Yeah, that's what it says. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 20:36

Thursday the 29th. Sorry, I I said Tuesday. It's Thursday the 29th. Um Danny Rag said, woohoo, a 36-hour academy. Um let me have a look.

SPEAKER_03: 20:53

What else happened here?

SPEAKER_06: 20:56

By the way, if anybody wants to learn a trick while I'm here, I can do that.

SPEAKER_04: 20:59

Oh, if you want Craig to teach a trick today, give us uh a big thumbs up in the chat. And I'll tell you what, while we're waiting for that to happen, um there has been some big news this year. Some people may have missed it. So uh let me just play this, Craig, and then we will be back.

unknown: 21:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 21:26

New year, a fresh chapter. The 1914 lives on. We are proud to announce that the 1914 is now part of the Alakazam group. The 1914 retains its own identity, its own character, its own website, and its own character with stands behind it. Alakazan's world customers, manufacturing expertise, infrastructure text. Schedule test text are already in development. The first of which 2020 heritage refined. Test is tradition strengthened. Test is the new 1914?

SPEAKER_04: 22:43

Right, so for those of you that don't know, there's the latest. Right.

SPEAKER_06: 22:48

I'll tell you something, Jamie Dawes has never sounds sexier.

SPEAKER_04: 22:51

It's a great voice, isn't it? It sounds like the old Marks and Spencer's adverts, but with a with a bloke. Um, right, so question. I know what my answer is, but which of the elite coin sets would you say are best for the beginner? Price is not an issue. Walk around more than table. Actually, that might be the game changer. That's from Don uh Dom Jackson.

SPEAKER_06: 23:21

See, there's walk-around and there's state and there's table magic, table routines in every single one of those projects. Yeah. There is. So it but if you're purely a walk around performer, I would probably say the nightshade coin set because I think there's more walk-around material with the nightshade coin set than there is with any of the others.

SPEAKER_07: 23:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 23:41

Um, and you know, one of my favourite walk-around routines of all time, which is the copper silver, which happens up here and down here. Um, I remember when we were filming the live performances for that, and we just destroyed Magic Play, like absolutely destroyed it. Um, you know, routines like that, routines like the three fly, routines like the uh uh the coin productions and so on and so forth. I'd say the nightshade coin sets, it's also the longest one of the sets. I think we really went deep in trying to make it for a beginner and also, you know, kind of take you on a journey of coin magic. So it starts with all of the slights that you're gonna need, and then it starts with routines that are quite easy. And and and the other thing about the nightshade coin set is you you you know, a lot of your favourite routines that you do with gimmick coins are replicatable with the nightshade coin set. Do you do um you know do you do the uh the hopping halves, the confusing coins? Well, if you do, then that's there's three versions of that on the nightshade coin sets. Do you do coins across? Great, there's three versions of that. Do you do uh three flight? Great, there's versions of that. Do you do you know everything that you could possibly want to do with coins? There's a version of it on the nightshade.

SPEAKER_04: 24:48

Um and I I would say as well, if you're gonna go for a nightshade, go for the dollar version because I just think it's so much more visual. The the half dollar's nice, but the I I would say half dollar for Mirage, dollar for nightshade.

SPEAKER_06: 25:06

Yeah, I'd agree. I'd agree with that.

SPEAKER_04: 25:08

Um so I hope that answers your question, Dom. Uh let's see what else is coming in. Uh Mark Spellman said, Craig, if you beat me, then I'm back in 2026 for a literal sleepover marathon academy.

SPEAKER_06: 25:32

Grab your sleeping bags. That's funny. Talking about Mark Spellman, by the way, hey Mark, hope you're well. I I've got to say, while Pete's looking for questions, I am so excited about the uh the Alcazam, um the Alexam convention coming up in May. I couldn't be more excited. Mark Spellman does not he he he doesn't uh you know uh do much at conventions very often because he's so busy performing, he's so busy doing being a magician at the highest level. And the fact that we've got Mark Spellman there doing you know as the headlining act, doing doing the gala show or the the the the show in the evening doing the lecture.

SPEAKER_04: 26:11

And we went to see his show, he's just done the West End on the 21st of December. It was my brother.

SPEAKER_06: 26:19

I really wanted to go, but Ryland and Thea were performing at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool. I was literally the other end of the country, sitting in the wings, pushing boxes out on stage, and I got it because everyone I've spoken to said it was an amazing show.

SPEAKER_04: 26:33

It it was great, and it was a packed house as well. It it was I don't I don't think there was any uh spare seats, and the other thing which was great was and I'm not saying this as it's great that there weren't a lot of magicians there, but it was great that there was a lot of lay people there. Do you know what I mean? There was a few magicians, I saw a few faces I knew, but it shows you that the public want to go and see magic. And you know, Spellman was there, he done um he performed as Mark, he performed as X. Uh, it was a great show. Um, the reactions from the audience were incredible, and you know, I think it was Mark that taught me this when he said, Um, whenever you go and see a show, don't worry about what you think about it, because we're magicians, listen to what people were saying. And the fact I'm not saying that from what I thought of it, but I I'm obviously listening to a lot of lay people around me, and the conversations were you know incredible. They were flawed, absolutely flawed. Um, yeah, it was a great show. So Mark's gonna be doing the entire second half of the evening show at the Alex Am convention as well. Um, that's so amazing.

SPEAKER_06: 27:59

That's that's worth a preserved admission alone. I will say, by the way, your name and our and and Mark Spellman's name have been linked over the last 20 years because obviously uh you've worked together an awful lot, you've you've worked on projects for Alakazam an awful lot. But I think you've kind of been overshadowed as a performer for because you know Mark's so prolific as a performer. But based on the footage that I saw in the Alakazam socials of you going out to that gig and absolutely destroying that table at that gig where the music's really loud, not the best performing situation at all for a for a magician to go and perform. And I saw the reactions you were getting. Pete and Hardy, I think that you need to start going full-time.

SPEAKER_04: 28:36

Do you know what? I I'm just like I I'm just really lazy. I haven't done a well, I probably have done a paid gig in the last 10 years, but not many. And this was Harry's residency, and Harry had an accident just before New Year's Eve, and he couldn't do he couldn't do the gig. So he said, Dad, can you do it? So I went, yeah, yeah, I'll do it. And I went out there, and it was funny actually, because the the gig that I did wasn't in that venue. It was so the place has got two restaurants. You've got a restaurant upstairs, which was very expensive. I think it was£180 a ticket, very posh, very quiet, seven-course meal. That's where I was performing. Now, most of the tables were tables of two, but there was two tables that were tables of ten. And there was this one particular table that you could not ask for better spectators. You you just you couldn't if I could have them for every trailer, I would have them. The age range was from 30 to say 70 on this one table, and they loved it. Absolutely kept everyone loved it, but you know, you get a table for two, and the reactions are oh my god, that's in oh my god, that's incredible. Whereas a table of eight or ten, you're getting cheers, you know. And I'm standing there, I'm performing at this table, and they kept calling me over. So I was doing, I'd done about four sets to them. And at the end of one of these sets, I get a tap on my shoulder. I look round, and there's this woman standing there, and she said, Oh, hi, I'm so and so. Thank you so much for stepping in and doing this tonight. She said, I'm the I'm the the boss. She said, and I never get to see the magic. But I'm sitting downstairs in the other restaurant, which was the bar. This was the younger place, you know, everyone's in there. She went, and I've got my group there, we've got a table. When you finish, would you mind just showing us something before you go? So I said, No, of course not. You know, you're not gonna turn it down. Um, so that was the table. So my whole night wasn't like that because I wouldn't have had a voice left. Um, but I went down there and I'd done a 10-minute set to them, my multiple selection, um, Sharpie through card, uh Chicago Opener, torn and restored transpot, and um yeah, it it went down like a storm. But yeah, it was great. I I really enjoyed doing it. When when you do it again when you haven't done it for so long, you you sort of it does make you miss it, but I'm still too lazy to go out as a as a full-time performer. Um but uh yeah, Spellman said uh Nardy in Vegas in 2000, Nardi in Vegas in 2008 flawed so many people. Juggling a magic shop on the Alex Sam scale and going out performing is near impossible. It is it's true, it it's purely. I finish here, I go home, and the last thing I want to do is go out. But I did say to Harry, I've always said to him, if you get a two-man job come up, I'll do it just for a laugh. I because I I love doing it. You you cannot love going out and getting those reactions. You can't not love getting those smiles from people and making people and I heard on the grapevine that um 4MG are getting back together as 2MG, and it's gonna be you and Harry. We are putting together so let let me explain what this is, right? So my good mate Leo Schmetzers um every year puts on a stage show, or he gets hired to do a stage show. So it's him, it's in a theatre, it's him and a couple of other uh magicians, and every year he asks me or Harry if we want to go and do it, and every year we say no. Um next year is Leo's final year as a professional magician. He's retired. I don't think he will. I don't think he's gonna retire.

SPEAKER_06: 33:35

I don't think he will.

SPEAKER_04: 33:36

No, I don't think he will. But he said he is, and he said, next year is my last year. I want you and Harry there. So we agreed to do it, and we were gonna do 20 minutes solo each, um, and then we said, you know what, why don't we do a double act? We'll just do a double act, we'll do two double acts, um, one on mentalism in the first half, one on magic in the second half, or the other way round. Um so yeah, we're gonna do that next year. And who knows, you know, if if we enjoy it, maybe we will do something, but it's not gonna be something. Um I'm not gonna be a professional magician again because I I just by the time I finish work and where we've got Alex Am USA and things like that, I don't even stop working when I go home. I'm always speaking to Chris or answering emails or doing this or doing that. So it's not as if I go home and do nothing. I'm I'm still working, but yeah, I don't want to be driving for three hours to go and do a gig and stuff like that. But I do really enjoy it when I'm when I'm doing it. I mean, how could you not?

SPEAKER_06: 34:55

How could you not exactly? You know, um I think we need to get you and Harry performing on the gala show of the Alakazam convention in 2027. You heard it here first.

SPEAKER_04: 35:07

Maybe, yeah, maybe we will. Maybe we will, because that won't be not long after, so we'll still remember our lines. Um what's uh what's Craig's new favourite walk-around effect?

SPEAKER_06: 35:22

Oh, it changes all the time. Uh what's my new favourite walk-around effect? Um, I mean, it changes. I I have a really big eclectic range of material. Um so it it just varies. I'm uh my closer doing walk around for many, many, many years has always been quarantine, which I'm really excited to just come back out again. Um but uh it very much depends. I I'm kind of I know the school of thought a lot of the time when you perform professionally is you do the same set, same four tricks on every single table. I tend not to do that. I have no idea what I'm going to do until I get to the table and I start talking to people. And at that point, I'm gonna kind of figure out then which direction I'm gonna go and what I'm gonna perform for them and what I'm gonna say to them. So it very it very much depends. Uh tech tech uh is something that I uh I close an awful lot with. Um I do a lot of coin magic, as you know. Um finally flipped off the Mirage coin set is is a great closer for me. Uh that's something that I love performing. Um uh uh E2, we talked about E2 earlier on, that's a great closer. Toxic Plus is something that I I close on an awful lot. It very it very much depends, to be perfectly honest. Um the the atomic deck, the atomic deck is something that um I I've I've structured into my act that I I literally close an awful lot with when I'm doing tables now and I'm doing sort of banquet tables. The atomic deck has become uh a big closer for me. Um I don't know, it very much depends. I I I could go to a gig and do it. Like I've got a gig tomorrow. I'm doing my residency in Fulham, and um I'm gonna be there for three hours uh at a Fulham Football Club, and uh it's a slightly different situation because it's not tables or anything, but I'm I I'm probably gonna perform 30 or 40 times and I'm gonna do something probably different every single group I go to. It's difficult, you know. I d I haven't got one hard and fast closer to be perfectly honest. Yeah uh when I'm doing walk around. But uh I think I think what you need to do when you when you are doing a closer, you need to have something that kind of gives that definitive finish. So a coin routine is great if you're producing a jumbo coin that says kind of that's it, that's the end. A chop cup or um, you know, like a chop or or or some sort of chop cup routine where you've got that finale, that's that's great as well, you know. You've got the final load, whatever the final load may be. Um, you know, multiple selection is great. A lot of the time you mentioned a multiple selection. Um I I do a multiple selection routine with five cards, and it finishes off by matching a tattoo on my arm, which is why I've got that tattoo there. Um I do a uh a Rubik's Cube routine, which finishes with uh matching the tattoo on that arm. So it just depends. It very much depends. Uh I don't know. If I'm doing cards, it's either the tech deck or quarantine normally.

SPEAKER_04: 38:19

See, tech deck, I still need to um to grab myself one as well because it's we're we're gonna be oh, there was a question here actually earlier about why don't we stock and it was I can't remember what product it was of Craig Petty's. Um the reason is Penguin don't wholesale new products straight away. So Penguin will sell the product for a bit and then they'll um release it for wholesale. Now, with us, we only order from Penguin maybe once every six weeks. Their stuff's always great, it always sells. But if we place an order, and it always happens, we place an order, then the day after we get an email going, oh, you can now pick these up. So we will have it in, but it's it's never instant. It's not like Murphy's, where you know, you get as soon as it's out, it's on Murphy's, we get it. It's not the same with Penguin. Penguin will have, and it's the same with us, to be fair. We will keep our products for a couple of weeks before we wholesale them out. You know, uh companies do do it. So that's why sometimes you'll see that only Penguin have their releases and no, it's not that we're not stocking it for any reason apart from the fact we can't get hold of it until they decide to to wholesale it out, which is not it's never when it's released, it's always two to four weeks. And the thing is, the other thing which does happen, especially with Craig's products, is they sell out very quickly. So by the time they would have put it on wholesale, now we've got to wait another six weeks for it to be replaced.

SPEAKER_06: 40:07

Example that came out on Black Friday, sold out by mid-November, and it's only just got back in stock. Game Changer, which came out before tech deck, that's been sold, that's been out of stock now for three weeks. They're desperately trying to make more. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 40:20

And it's not an easy thing to make. It's not like printing a deck of cards which you can probably turn round in in a month. A tech deck, there's a lot of you know, there's a lot of stuff going on with that. Um David said, Hi Craigs. Uh what day uh what days are you gonna be at the Alakazam convention? I presume you're coming down on the Friday.

SPEAKER_06: 40:46

I'm gonna make the whole weekend. Uh yeah, so I'm gonna make the whole weekend. So I think we'll come straight after school on the Friday. Uh, because obviously I'm gonna bring Ryland uh Thea. I haven't discussed it with them yet, but I'm sure I will. Um let us know actually.

SPEAKER_04: 40:59

We've booked we've booked you a room, but then obviously we'll get we might have booked you.

SPEAKER_06: 41:04

Oh well, see goes in boxes, so we can just put a uh you can just put her in a corner in a cardboard box and she's absolutely fine. Like little Harry Potter. She's comfortable. Yeah, exactly. Put her in the covers. Yeah, exactly. So she's fine. We'll just shove her under the bed. It's okay.

SPEAKER_04: 41:20

Uh Danny Rag said he loves his tech deck.

SPEAKER_06: 41:24

Um, thanks, Danny.

SPEAKER_04: 41:26

Let me see what else is happening. Oh, show us a trick, Craig. A lot of people want to see a trick. Okay, Dokes. I'm gonna I'm gonna put it over to you.

SPEAKER_06: 41:39

And uh stay stay on mic because I'm gonna get you to help me. Or are you guys?

SPEAKER_04: 41:44

No, no, no, I'm I'm not going anywhere. I want to watch. Okay. I want to learn. Cool. Right, here we go.

SPEAKER_06: 41:50

Okay. Uh I I didn't prepare to teach you guys a trick, so we're gonna do just something with a regular deck of cards. If I just push this back a little bit. Um you see these?

SPEAKER_04: 42:00

Uh yeah, that's a snazzy old close-up mat there.

SPEAKER_06: 42:04

Oh well, this is this is actually Thea's. Uh, I've bored close-up mat. Uh this is actually Thea's close up mat. Um but deck of cards, they're all there, they're all different. We'll give them a shuffle. Uh Pete, we're gonna try and do something right now. Uh uh we're gonna do an experiment. Experimenting coincidence.

SPEAKER_04: 42:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 42:21

Uh using uh a deck of cards. And I normally do this for two people, but we'll do it with just you. Uh I want you to do me a favor, just say stop anytime you want to.

SPEAKER_04: 42:31

Uh stop.

SPEAKER_06: 42:32

Cool. Right there. Are you happy?

SPEAKER_04: 42:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 42:35

I'm not I'm not gonna show you this card just yet. I'm just gonna pop it. Right there. We're gonna get back to it in a little bit, okay? And we'll do the same thing again. I'm gonna have you pick another card. So, Pete, anytime you want to, just say stop.

SPEAKER_04: 42:44

Uh stop.

SPEAKER_06: 42:46

Excellent, and we'll take that one. Are you sure you're there? You're happy there, is that okay?

SPEAKER_04: 42:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_06: 42:51

Good. We'll put that one there. So two cards. We'll say that these are your predictions. So we'll say that the two cards that you've picked there, sight unseen, they are your predictions, and then we would go to somebody else and we'd have them pick two cards. But as you're the only person here, I'll do it to you. Now it's really important that once the predictions are down on the table, uh, you hand the cards off to the spectator. Uh the spectator shuffles the cards as much as they want to. And then Pete, they would pick any card that they want. There is no force. So Pete, as I go through, excuse me, just say stop any time you want to.

SPEAKER_04: 43:26

Uh we'll say stop now.

SPEAKER_06: 43:29

That that one right there.

SPEAKER_04: 43:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_06: 43:31

And do you want me to put it on the card on my left or the card on my right?

SPEAKER_04: 43:35

Card on your right.

SPEAKER_06: 43:37

This this one here. So we'll put that card right there. Perfect. And we'll do the same thing. We need a card for uh for this uh one over here as well on my left. So same thing, just say stop anytime you want.

SPEAKER_04: 43:48

Uh stop.

SPEAKER_06: 43:50

Right there? Yep. That one there, are you sure? Yeah. And that one would go here. Excellent. Now think about this. You could have picked any cards. We're gonna have a look at the cards uh that you put down. I said this was in the experimenting coincidence, because first of all, uh you chose to put on here the ace of diamonds. And what's interesting is the prediction that you made beforehand, this one right here, is the ace of hearts.

SPEAKER_03: 44:17

Nice.

SPEAKER_06: 44:18

And you chose to put uh this one on here, which is the ace of clubs, and your prediction was the ace of spades.

SPEAKER_04: 44:26

That's nice.

SPEAKER_06: 44:27

Love it. It's fun, right? Yeah, so basically, in um Darren Brown's first book, was it Devil's Picture Book, Pete? Yeah, um, he put this slight, which I could never do. Uh and the slide was you drop a double. So here I've got uh a seven and a ten, for example. You drop a double onto the table like that. And then what you'd do is you'd deal cards over here, and they'd say stop anytime they wanted to. And when they say stop, you would go to deal this card over here, but you'd pull it back with your thumb, and you'd just absolutely deal nothing and you'd separate that at the same time. Yeah, and no matter how much I tried that, I could never make it look very, very good. I couldn't really uh make it work. So this was my way of actually taking that and making it work for me. So all you do is you have the four races on top of the deck, um, and if you want to do it as the way I did it, and shuffle the cards, just keeping those four races on top of the deck. So now you're gonna force the um uh the top stock of the pack, and I just did a riffle force, but any force that you want to use is fine. And I would normally do this to the I normally get four people involved in this. So the first person will pick a prediction. So I'll do a riffle force and I'll say brilliant, that's your prediction. Now you're gonna grab a double and you're just gonna drop the double down onto the table. If you've never done that before, don't be scared, it's not a difficult thing to do. You just hold the two cards in biddle grip, give them a bit of a squeeze, and just drop them, and you'll find. I'm turning my hand to try and show a bit of a do here. You'll find on any surface, so if I move the close-up pad out of the way, you'll see, look, any surface, just by dropping it, boom, they'll they'll they'll land perfectly. So it'll work on any surface. It's definitely something that's worth learning, uh, being able to drop a double like that, right? So that double that you're dropping are the two aces that are the same colour. So you drop that down there, you then have somebody else, uh you can do another uh shuffle if you want to, but you keep the uh the two aces on top and you do exactly the same thing. So uh do a riffle force, have them say stop. Wherever they say stop, you cut at that point, and you grab another double and you put that double over there. So you've got two doubles down on the table, but they think they're two single cards. The cool thing is you've done the majority of the work. So now you give the cards to the spectator, you have them mix up the cards as much as they want to, they can shuffle them as much as they want to. You take the cards back and you say, Look, you you say to somebody else, you're gonna make a predic you're gonna make uh you're gonna take a card. So now you spread through the cards and you have them touch one, and it makes no difference which card they touch. And this is this is the move. Check this out, Pete. Whatever card they touch, you leave it side jogged on the right the upper packet. So the card they touch is left side jogged on the upper packet. And what's cool about this is you get to give them the choice of which packet to put it on. Let's say they put it on the right like you did. They think that's an individual single card. Now, all that's gonna happen is your fingers here, not just the fingers are touching the side jog card, you're gonna pull the fingers back. And when you do that, what's actually happening is that card is getting pulled back in line with the cards above it. Now, you do that as you apparently rest this card down on this card here, but in the action of pulling this card back, your knuckles are gonna automatically separate that card to the right. Watch. They touch a card and you literally just do that. Nice, yeah. But the retention on it is amazing. They can burn your hand and they will not see anything.

SPEAKER_04: 48:12

It really does look like yeah, that looks exactly what it's supposed to look like, yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 48:18

It's so good, it really is. So so effectively you can just get them to touch a card, and you can get them to whichever card they touch, you literally just do that. Then they can pick which packet that they put it on. You then have somebody else touch a card and you put that one on over here, and it's exactly the same move, like that. And so now you've think about how fair that is.

SPEAKER_03: 48:43

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 48:44

Because from the audience's point of view, they they made a prediction, and they um they put the card down on the table. Uh they made a prediction over there, they put a card down on the table, and then somebody else picked a card and put it on top, and you end up with a wonderful four-ace production.

SPEAKER_04: 49:04

That's great.

SPEAKER_06: 49:05

The only thing that I would say, if you want to change, uh you can do exactly the same flight as like a prediction of one card, you can do an open prediction. There's a lot you can do with it, but if you want to do the most irritating card trick in the world, take yourself two sevens and put them on top of the deck. Seven of Hearts, Seven of Clubs.

SPEAKER_03: 49:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 49:26

And this is great if you're performing in like restaurants where there's a family audience. What you're gonna do is you're gonna go through and you say, I'm gonna show you the most irritating card trick in the world. Now, all you're gonna do is you're gonna go through and you're gonna take out the two sixes. So you say, I'm gonna take out two sixes. And later on, you know, sometimes people ask me, I don't think this is a full deck, so I don't think I've got oh, there it is. Uh sometimes my hook line is hey, you know, people ask me why this is the most irritating card trick of all time. Well, I'm gonna show you why it's the most irritating card trick of all time. All you're gonna do is you get a break underneath the two sevens here, and you put the two sixes on top, okay? And all you're gonna do is you're gonna get a break with your thumb here. So you get a break between the two sevens. Right. A thumb break at the back, right? So from this point of view, it looks like this. You've just taken out the two sixes. I've got a little finger break here, I square the two sixes up, and I take them away, and I've got my thumb break there. So now all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna flip that six over, and as I I I take it under the packet, I'm just gonna square it up like that, and I've loaded that seven on top. Now I uh I I've got this six here, right? And I've got this seven underneath. So what I can do now is I can do a KM move. If you don't know the KM move, I'll I'll quickly show you what's actually happening here is you take the double off to the right, and your fingers here are gonna pull that seven back as you drop that six on the table, and you put that on top here like this as well. So for the audience's point of view, it looks like you've just shown two sixes. And I can show them again. I can say, look, I'm gonna put the six of clubs here, and I'm gonna put the six of hearts here, but now I've actually loaded the sevens on top. But for the audience's point of view, it looks like I've just put two sixes down on the table. So I say this is the most irritating card trick in the world, and I go to a kid, ideally somebody like eight, nine, ten, and I say, Look, I'm gonna mix up the cards, and I want you to touch any card. So they touch a card, and I say, which one do you want to put it on? And I'll say this one, and I do the move that we just discussed, and I say, touch another one, and I say, and then I turn around to the adults and I say, Now you're probably wondering why this is the most irritating card trick in the world. Well, let me show you, and then I turn over like this, and and and I immediately do this, and every single kid in the audience is gonna go, six, seven, and you know, it's uh it's a way of being topical, if you know what I mean. It's a way of taking something that every that's in pop culture right now and kind of just making a trick around it. So it's a utility move that you can use to do open predictions, you can do ace productions, you can do um coincidence style routines, you can do whatever you want to do with it.

SPEAKER_04: 52:13

But yeah, no, that's great. You've got a lot of people loving that. Um Spellman said uh tech deck makes much more sense, so much more sense than the Omni deck. Um, yeah, I love the idea of the tech deck. I I wish I would have had I mean my Omni deck finale to the to the multiple selection. I had mine my OmniDeck custom printed by print by magic.

SPEAKER_06: 52:39

So I've got a I noticed, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 52:41

Yeah. Um, and then that way you get that extra beat, and you can see it in the video as well, where I say there's no deck, and they lift up their hand and then put their hand down because as far as they're concerned, there is still a deck, so it gives you that extra bit rather than lifting it up and it's just transparent. You get that moment, and you can hear when she brings her hand up, you can hear someone laughing as if the trick's gone wrong, and then as soon as she picks up, you can now hear their reaction where they go, you know, no effing way or whatever.

SPEAKER_06: 53:16

That's great.

SPEAKER_04: 53:17

Um, but yeah, and the tech decks, it's that, isn't it? They think they've still got it.

SPEAKER_06: 53:22

It's exactly the same as that, and then you've got that moment where you can open it up and yeah, it's great. Um I have to give a shout out, by the way, to uh you know uh Drew Perry, because I I Drew designed the tech deck for me.

SPEAKER_04: 53:36

Drew's a genius to me.

SPEAKER_06: 53:37

So it's Drew that I went to. I mean, Drew's incredible, Drew's an incredible, incredible, incredible uh creator and um um and just all around good guy, and um it wouldn't have happened without him.

SPEAKER_04: 53:50

So yeah, no, he's Drew's great. I think he might be on the chat. I'm sure I saw his name pop up earlier. Um so I did mention at the beginning as well, we've got a little uh teaser because someone did ask, can you tell us about any of the upcoming releases? Now, when we purchased the rights to the 1914, we also purchased the rights to six unreleased effects, which will be coming out in 2026. They're all going to be coming out this year. Now, the next release, we are hoping to launch it at Blackpool. So um, although Alexam will have its new releases, so will the the 1914. Now, this effect in particular, I know uh Simon Lipkin showed us it. I can't remember whether it was last Blackpool or the Blackpool before. I think it may have been the Blackpool before, and we loved it, and we said we would love to buy the rights off you, and he said, uh I've already sold it to the 1914, but it's come full sense. So let's take a look. So this is a little teaser.

SPEAKER_05: 55:10

Tell Charlie you love him. But Izzy, it had to work for you, right? It had to work for you. This trick only works for Izzy. Did you not know that? No. No, it wouldn't have worked, Hannah. Uh it wouldn't have worked, it had to work for Izzy. And I hadn't met you, I've never met you before. Yeah, because in my wallet, you know you said, oh, do you want me to put it above or below that other card? You saw the other card in there. That's what I wrote, that's what I put in there. I put another card in there just before we started. It has to work for you. You know why? Read out what it says.

SPEAKER_02: 55:50

This would have only worked for someone.

SPEAKER_05: 55:59

Show, show, show, show. This trick would have only worked for someone who recorded me to the local. There have been some incredible magic wallets released over the years, and let's be honest with each other, we've all got a problem. We're obsessed with them. And why not? Let's feed the obsession, because this is the castle wallet.

SPEAKER_04: 56:34

So that is coming out. Fingers crossed, black pole. Um, so there's a couple of other questions coming in. Uh Bob says, Will you be restocking the Orphic Plus? Yes. So just briefly, I mean, if you want to know the real in-depth uh talk about the 1914, you can jump on Craig's uh Magic TV channel. When's that video going up, Craig?

SPEAKER_06: 57:03

Hopefully this Saturday, if we've got time to edit it, if not really early on next week.

SPEAKER_04: 57:09

Cool. So we've just done me and Harry done a full interview with Craig. We give you all the in-depth info about the 1914. But I will say, the moment we agreed to purchase the company, which was late November, um, we started work on manufacturing all of the 19, or near enough all of the 1914 range. Um, so that means uh the billets are coming back, tricolor's coming back, die will be done is coming back, shadow wallet is coming back, Orphic wallet is coming back. Um, almost every effect that they put out, we're already in the process of manufacturing. Um, the Eclipse cards are all coming back. Um, we've got a special addition to the Eclipse family coming out. Um that will be out later on this year as well. So yeah, we are restocking everything. As for restock dates, we're hoping to have all fics on our stand at Blackpool. So um if you're interested in one, pop over and have a look. And the other thing that we did recently, because um the 1914 were out of a lot of products, uh, we put a notify me button on the website. So that means if you are waiting for an all fic plus, pop over to the website and go on to the product and click the notify me button. And what that means is as soon as we input stock, you will be notified. Now we did that on Saturday. We had a lot of people already sign up for various products, a lot for the billets. We got one box of billets in. We were getting one box by air, the rest are coming by C. We put the stock in within two hours. We had sold out. We hadn't sent an email out or anything, that was purely on that notify me button. It sold out, so you get to know before anyone else. So, whatever products you're interested in, hit that notify me button and it will let you know the moment we put new stock in. And as I said, we're getting one box of everything by air, and the rest is coming by C. So if you want to get your hands on one in the quickest possible time, do that notify me button. Um Warren Treadaway said, Hey guys, on a different note, are there any plans to restock the BitBook? Yes, the Bitbook is coming back uh first quarter of this year. I thought it would have been out last year, but um it's taken longer than we expected. But it is in the process of being manufactured.

SPEAKER_06: 59:57

Bitbook is amazing.

SPEAKER_04: 59:58

I it it's still One of my go-tos. It really is so strong, so strong. Um, Robert Six said with the 1914, is the shipping policy uh the same in the US as it is for Alakazam? 100% it is. We are now the owners of Alakazam. Their stock will be stocked here and in our US warehouse. So even though you might place your order on the 1914 website, we process the order, we pack the order, we send the order. If you've got an issue with the order, you speak to the Alakazam team. So as far as you're concerned, it's Alakazam. But it's it's its own brand, but it's owned by us, and we take responsibility for it. It's got our infrastructure behind it. Um, so if you've got an issue with anything, you speak to us directly. Um, but like I said, if you want you know the full information on 1914, how we got round to buying it, what our plans are for the future, and everything else, make sure you check out the interview with Craig because we left no stone unturned, I don't think.

SPEAKER_06: 1:01:13

No, it was a really good interview. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_04: 1:01:17

Um Magic Magic Man said you should combine the 1914 products to come up with new routines. I'd love to see an Orphic Eclipse routine. Um you've sort of read my mind because now we've got the products, we are gonna. There's a great idea actually that Harry had. When we got the maverick, have you ever seen D Christopher's Maverick?

SPEAKER_06: 1:01:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:01:49

It's like a a carry pouch, but it's made of really yeah, really quality materials. The moment Harry saw it, he loved it and took one for himself. And he said, Dad, I've got a great idea. When we get more stocking, I'm gonna give one to you. Like, he's gonna give one to me, one to Jamie, um, one to Wayne, and basically we are gonna fill them with our own routine, and then we're gonna be able to offer the Maverick, or you could buy Peter's like the Maverick Peter Nardi, the Maverick uh Harry Nardi, the Maverick Jamie Dawes, and when you buy it, not only will you get all the props that we've put in it, but you'll also get a video where we teach you our routine using that pouch. So that really will be a 20-minute act. So you'll be able to buy Peter's Act, Harry's Act, um, and so on, which I thought was really good. So we're already looking at that, and I'm um I've designed a gaff deck for the Eclipse, they're being manufactured now, so they should be in the same time the Eclipse decks come. Um, and I'm gonna be uh filming a whole host of routines using the gaff deck as well, um, and you'll be able to mix them with your eclipse deck. Now, at the moment, we're only going for the gaffs in white, but if there's enough demand, we'll also do it in black and parlor if there's a demand for it. So that, my friend, takes us to the end of this Alexam live. Craig, is there anything you want to talk about before we sign off?

SPEAKER_06: 1:03:37

No, um, just that um I'm excited to be lecturing at the Alakazam convention. I really am. I I I cannot wait. I'm putting something very, very special together. Um honestly can't wait.

SPEAKER_04: 1:03:52

I I can't wait. We it's something we've been talking about for 20 years doing a convention, um and it sort of happened by a happy coincidence and a bit of an accident last year that we found the venue. Um and it's great, and hopefully, this will be the first of many. I can't see why it won't be an annual thing. Um, the tickets sold out in super quick time. We've just added some more tickets. I think there's another 10 being added because we've upgraded to the biggest uh auditorium in the cinema now, so we we literally can't sell any more than the tickets that are available now. Um so yeah. Well, that's it, Craig. I want to say a big thank you for joining us on the live.

SPEAKER_06: 1:04:44

This is I'll be um I'll be back at the end of January with um uh the the live launch of the next Elite Coin Range product. And uh, if everything goes according to plan, I might have a brand new trick on the Alakasam stand at Blackpool.

SPEAKER_04: 1:05:02

I think you will. It's just choosing which one. Well, I think we know which one. Yeah, there are so many to choose from.

SPEAKER_06: 1:05:11

There's a few, isn't there?

SPEAKER_04: 1:05:12

Yeah. So guys, yeah, thank you so much for having me on, Peter. Have you got your own stand at Blackpool again this year? I'm never on it.

SPEAKER_06: 1:05:23

Uh I know you're never on it. Yeah, I'm never on it. Although this year, I I believe that it's gonna be less mental. This is the first year for me that Rylan's not doing anything. Right. Like, it's insane that every year since he's been going to Blackpool, like the first year he was on the Gala Shop, then the following year he was on the Bear Pit, then the following year he was in the Family Entertainer competition, then the following year he was performing with Harry Merlin Piper and Killian in the in the show. So for four years, this is his fifth year, and it's the first year where I don't have to worry about something crazy that Rylan's doing. So I can just concentrate on getting drunk. I can concentrate on just having fun and chatting and speaking to people. So yeah, I I I'm I'm gonna be I will definitely jump on the Alakazam stand. I believe I have my own stand uh that I'll I'll probably be on. Um yeah, I don't know what else I'm doing. I'll be on Penguin Stand for a bit, I imagine, as well. I'm just gonna be.

unknown: 1:06:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:06:22

You always do everyone that wants a piece of the pay.

SPEAKER_06: 1:06:27

Well, I'll give you a little bit of a thing. I'm gonna speak to Russ Brown after this. Because Russ Brown has asked me to do something at Blackpool, and if that comes off, that's gonna be that's gonna be epic. So um I I'm not allowed to say what, but uh is this at the convention or the house of secrets? At the actual convention, yes.

SPEAKER_04: 1:06:49

Oh wow. Brilliant. So yeah, brilliant. I uh mate, I'm looking forward to it, and I can't believe it's only what 40 days away or something, it's gonna be here before we know it.

SPEAKER_06: 1:07:04

Yeah, it's mad. Time rolls around so quickly. Yeah, uh it really does, it really does, but it's gonna be a lot of fun and four days, you'll be dead at the end of those four days, Pete.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:14

Yeah, yeah, not as young as I used to be. Right. So, on that note, we're gonna leave it. I've got a rush next door, but Craig, thank you so much for joining us, my friend.

SPEAKER_06: 1:07:26

No problem, buddy. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:28

Expect yourself an extractor in the post tomorrow or the next.

SPEAKER_06: 1:07:32

Thank you, buddy. All right, matey. Get those routines filmed.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:36

Speak to you soon.

SPEAKER_06: 1:07:38

Bye everyone, guys.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:40

Thank you so much for joining us for our first live of 2026. I believe we're back next Tuesday as well. Um, and then we are gonna be announcing our studio lives if you're an unlimited member and we have got some academies coming up. I'm sure there's an academy or studio live happening this month, so we'll let you know about that. Also, if you haven't checked out the 1914, go and have a look at our website. It's the 1914.com. And remember, it's now powered by us at Alakazam, which means if you are in America, um your order will ship from America. If you're in the UK, the order will ship from the UK. Uh, the other thing we've done is we have added that notify me button and we have reduced the threshold for free shipping. I believe it was£100 for free shipping, it's now dropped to 40 to match Alakazam. So um go and have a look if you haven't uh had a look at their site already. I will say a lot of the stuff is out of stock at the moment, um, but it is being rerun. So hit that notify me bell and you will be notified as soon as it's back in stock. So, guys, that's it for me. I'm gonna leave you with a little trailer. I don't know which one it is. Uh, what is that? Let's let's leave you with this. So, guys, thank you so much for joining us. Uh, we will see you hopefully next week. See you then.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:13

The news is out. The 1914 has found a new home. We are proud to announce that Alakazam Magic are now the proud custodians of the 1914. What does this mean for you? Simply put. Everything you love stays exactly where it belongs. The aesthetic, the quality, the philosophy. The website remains unchanged. Your instructional content is safe. The classics that defined the 1914 will be restocked and made available once again. And with our industry-leading infrastructure and customer service behind the scenes, the future is stronger than ever. But this isn't just about preservation. Work has already begun on a series of new 1914 releases. Projects that have been quietly evolving for years and are finally ready to see the light of today. This is the next chapter. Built on respect for the past, driven by belief in the future. Thank you for your continued support. Thank you for coming along with us on this journey. We are the new 1914.