Episode 12

This week on the Alekazam Live Podcast, Peter Nardi and Wayne Goodman dive into the biggest stories in magic, including the end of an era as David Copperfield performs his final show at the MGM Grand after 25 years in Vegas. The pair discuss what could be next for the legendary illusionist, upcoming magic conventions, industry rumours, and plenty of behind-the-scenes chat from the world of magic.

Packed with opinions, insights, and the usual banter, this is a must-listen episode for magicians and magic fans alike. So grab a drink, sit back, and let’s talk magic.

Find out more about the team behind this podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to the Alakazam Live podcast with Peter Gardy. For the full video version of this episode, head over to YouTube and search Alicazam Magic Live. So grab a drink, back, and let's talk magic.

SPEAKER_04 0:28

Hi guys, and welcome to this week's podcast, the live Thingimajig. And I'm joined by uh the legend that is Wayne Goodman, as per usual. Hello, Mr. Goodman.

SPEAKER_05 0:40

Hello, hello, hello. I'm just looking for some news online.

SPEAKER_04 0:43

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 0:44

I'm just having a quick look on a couple of faces. But yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:47

Well, the big news, as we were discussing earlier, well, there's a lot of big news, actually. We've got a convention coming up the weekend, which we'll talk about in a moment. Um, but the big news in Magic was that David Copperfield did his last show at the MGM Grand last week.

SPEAKER_05 1:08

Now I don't know. So if you go back, what was it, 25 years? That was when he re he kind of retired from touring. Um and up until then he'd been doing like non-stop around the world touring. And then he kind of hung up the trucks and the vans and uh the worldwide tours, and he settled in Vegas, where he's been for 25 years. I wonder if this I mean he he's not a young man anymore.

SPEAKER_04 1:39

I wonder if this is retiring from performing or retiring from I don't think it is, because I've been I'm a subscriber of the Magician's Podcast Network. Anyone that don't subscribe to it, it's a great um podcast. Um and it's Richard Young, but there's a few different podcasts that go on within that network, and he interviewed Chris Kenner before the final show and after the final show. So by the sounds of it, even though Chris was keeping things under wraps, there's already other things planned. Because in today's one, I'm halfway through it, and they're talking about um sort of taking all the props out and everything else, and he sort of mentioned, oh, you know, some of it's going in storage, some of it we're using again. So it sounds like they've got another show already planned. Now, whether that's in another casino in Vegas or whether it's something else going on, um, but it it sounds like they're they're certainly not stopping. I mean it I don't know David Copperfield well, I've met him once or twice. Um but he doesn't seem to me the type of guy that's gonna retire. You know?

SPEAKER_03 3:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:21

Um and this when I listened to the first podcast, they were talking we can't imagine him being a gigan magician, though. No, no, it's gonna be a no, it's gonna be a show. Um it's gonna be a show, but where it is, whether it is gonna be on tour again, I wouldn't think touring if I was David's age, I don't think touring would be. I mean, even at my age, to be fair, I couldn't I couldn't be asked to go out.

SPEAKER_05 3:58

He's got he's got kids, and you know, there's it's gonna need to be some sort of stability for them.

SPEAKER_04 4:03

Yeah, and the the thing is Richard Richard Young's very, very good at asking the questions. I mean, he'll he'll go straight into it. Um and he did he was talking about what what was the what was the decision? Why why did you decide to stop the show? And um Chris Kenner said, well, it it was the contract had come up for renewal again. So what happened within those negotiations for that contract, whether it was just a case of do you know what we've done it here, whether they weren't getting what they want, what uh there was no specifics as to why that decision was made, but it wasn't out of the blue, it wasn't like we're stopping this now. It was the time of renegotiating that contract, and they decided not to go for a further five years at the MGM, but that certainly doesn't mean they won't be doing an extra five years at any other casino, you know? Yeah, um, so it'll be interesting. I mean, and I don't think it's gonna be too long until we hear what's happening, but there was a lot of magicians that flew from all around the world to see that final show. I know friends of ours like Michael Fitch, Rodney Piper, um, Harry Merlin Piper. There was loads of people that flew out there to to be there for the final show. Um, yeah, so it was interesting, interesting, and it's um it would be interesting to know the the full story uh, but Chris is quite open about stuff. If you listen to that podcast, he's quite open about a lot of stuff. Obviously, there's stuff that they can't be too too open about, and he does make the comment that even though the next step is written in stone, he doesn't have the tablet in his hands, so he doesn't want to say anything about it fair enough. So, you know, they already know what they're doing, they're not sitting there going, Oh that's it, what are we gonna do now? I think it's it's already sorted, and I I could imagine someone like Copperfield will be in very high demand out there, very high demand, you know. Um so yeah, if anyone uh knows anything that I don't, Al Prendo said the sphere, who knows? Um yeah, if anyone knows, let us know. Uh let me see what's happening. I want to say hello, there's a lot of our American Alakafam joining us, so welcome, and there's a lot of um new names up here as well. So if you're new to the Alexam Live Podcasty thing, then welcome. Welcome aboard. Um, so what other news have you got, Wayney?

SPEAKER_05 7:38

Um I'm trying I've been trying to think. Uh there's uh there's yeah, I mean this last couple of weeks have been very busy. Um we've been very, very busy. Um so yeah, I mean we're heading into wedding season, so the wedding shows are starting, which is always good. Um I'm trying to think if there's anything major happening. It's not not really not not that I know of.

SPEAKER_04 8:01

Um what your wedding season, you're yeah, thank you for that. You're a great help. So your your wedding season. Yes, uh tell us a bit about it. When's it start? When's it end? Because weddings obviously now go on throughout the year. Yeah, I mean, people are getting married, you know, all sorts of times now.

SPEAKER_05 8:30

Every every day there are weddings anyway, but the bulk of weddings tend to happen um in between April and October.

SPEAKER_03 8:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:41

So now I I I'm very fortunate um with the couple of venues that I work with around here. Uh, I get I get a few weddings in November, a few weddings in December, um, often um maybe one or two in January. Um, but and let's be honest with you, wedding venues January time are going to be a bit cheaper because it's out of season, it's not gonna be as busy, so you know they don't charge as much, they just want to get the bills covered. So, yeah, so I'm quite lucky I get a few weddings those sort of times. But between April and October, um yeah, it's normally very, very busy, and that means like some days during the week sometimes, um, every weekend. I mean, it's slowed down a little bit in the last couple of years post-COVID, or for some people it has. Um, for me, I know it has around here, uh, two or three of our wedding venues have actually shut. Um, really? Yeah, we've had three weddings, I think three that have shut around in this area, which is very, very sad.

SPEAKER_04 9:41

Um that's surprising though, isn't it? Because weddings uh do you think more people are not having the big lavish wedding now? Or yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:51

So as someone who's planning their wedding, um, as someone who's planning their wedding, when I wrote the wedding book, uh I think I'd have to look it up exactly because it changes year by year. But I think the average wedding was costing between between 15 and 30,000 pounds.

SPEAKER_03 10:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:10

Um now it's between the and this is the average, obviously there's gonna be more, there are gonna be some that are more and some that are less. Um, but the average now is between 15 and 22.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

Right.

SPEAKER_05 10:22

So um, yeah, which is an amazing amount of money.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:28

It's a huge amount. I think for magicians, one of the big things is we we've kind of rolled the roost in weddings for the last 10 years or so. Um a wedding magician has become a big industry, very, very saturated, um, and you know, it's it's it's a huge thing, and yeah. Not not as big as the photography market or the cake market or the dress market, obviously, or the venue market, but as the what I call luxury suppliers, so you know the the the wedding magicians are.

SPEAKER_04 11:01

Yeah, the things you don't have to have.

SPEAKER_05 11:04

Yeah, the the little extras, the little bits, then then the wedding magicians have I think have ruled the roost for a little while, and now there are other people coming in. So I I've been looking around wedding fairs. Um, I was at one recently, they had a girl there, um, and you went over and she gave you a little cake in a pot, uh, and it was just a sponge cake, and it was nothing on it, and then she opened up this huge ice cream cart, like would be full of different pots of ice cream, but instead it's full of different kinds of cake topping. And she makes you your own bespoke cake right there, and then and then off you go. Um, there were there were loads of different things. There are, I mean, one of the big things that's coming in now, and I see this quite a lot on the forums, is people saying, Tell me about content creators, and there are people who are going out now as wedding content creators. Now, my mate who's a wedding photographer hates these people because they take over the day and they get in the way while other people are doing stuff. So, literally, um, he was telling me that there was a wedding a little while ago, and while they were trying to serve the food, the content creator went, Oh, I've got a great idea, let's do something with the food being served. Now, the people who run the venue just want to get the food out, yeah. But now they're being choreographed by this this this woman and her vlok to bring it out in such a way in a dance and stuff, and and then having to go back and do it again because they didn't get the shot and do it again and do it again to get the content. And they she even saying it was just causing massive issues, but all these little things that pop up, like the cake lady, like the content creators, like um the singing waiters came in for a long time, you know. They they're they're kind of dying down a little bit now. I know there are there's a few companies out there who do really good jobs, some who a bit like magicians, there'll be great ones and there won't be less great ones. Um, but they all they all want a little nugget of of the big pile, they all want to get that little wedge of wedge of off the big huge fund pile, and it's it's it's getting harder and harder.

SPEAKER_04 13:07

Yeah, yeah. Um no, you're right. It uh there's that's right.

SPEAKER_05 13:12

18 18 weddings is is is is great.

SPEAKER_04 13:15

Yeah. Yeah, no, it's it is it's a good market, the wedding market. I mean, you can make a good living if you're a popular wedding magician. But like you said, with weddings now, it well, it's always been it's always there's that very weird looking for something that no one else has had. Do you know what I mean? That's why you get like you said, this cake topping thing. It's like someone will go, Oh, never seen that before. Let's let's get that. That's something different. It's always that little we want something a little bit different.

SPEAKER_05 13:52

A friend of mine does, um, a friend of mine does photo booths, yeah. And she's just got a new photo booth. We were actually thinking about having it at our wedding, uh, Trace and I. We we're not decided yet. Um, but it's a 360 camera, yeah. So you stand on the base and it spins around you, and it and then the video comes out, it comes out forward and it goes reverse as well. And they've had it a couple of years, but she said in the last year it's it's gone out nearly 365 days, yeah, because it's something different, it's something new, it's different from the photo box, you know.

SPEAKER_04 14:27

I'm gonna be honest with you, Wayne. Yeah, I would say if you and Tracy are getting one, get a traditional photo booth. Because people just have fun in them. Don't they? They do. When there's a photo booth, you have fun in it, you put on the hat, you do this, you do that. Whereas the scan thing, you're sort of not really doing that.

SPEAKER_05 14:50

Well, one thing the one thing we did talk about was um which was good about it, was uh with that, we will get a copy of all the videos for it. However, with the photo booth or the photo mirror, most of them are mirrors now because you get more people in it. Um the people who take the picture get a picture.

SPEAKER_03 15:08

Yeah, you still get as well.

SPEAKER_05 15:10

We still get we get one as well. Um, yeah, yeah, we probably will go for that, but it's quite cool to get on there and go, Oh, we're thinking about this. Can we have a video play? We've got a couple of videos. Um, but yeah, yeah, the the weather.

SPEAKER_04 15:24

We have loads of fun in the photo booths. You always grab different people, you get in there, you do your stupid booths.

SPEAKER_05 15:31

In your toilet in the house, you've got pictures up of Jenny in a cowboy hat.

SPEAKER_04 15:35

I I thought you were gonna say you got a photo booth in the toilet in your house. It's like no, there's no cameras in the toilet in my house, but yeah, you can see all the the photos up there and everything. They are great, they're good fun. I like I love a photo.

SPEAKER_05 15:49

Everybody wants their piece of the pie, and and is so the wedding market is very, very saturated. Um, but yeah, it's it's it's you know, for me, I mean I'm very lucky. I do kid shows, I do corporate shows, I do every kind of show, and for me, it's lovely that you know I a wedding is very rewarding. It's very when you're when you're at a wedding, it's a privilege to be there to be part of that day.

SPEAKER_03 16:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:16

Um 99% of the time you get treated so well. Um there are a few, I've had some odd couples in the past, um, but 99% of the time you get treated like like you're a superstar. So you get the meal, you get I mean, I was even invited because about before COVID, I got invited to sit at the top table and have some food with them, um, which was you know really surreal. Um but yeah, it it's it's it's great, and you know, knowing that this is gonna be their happiest day, this is this is their dream wedding, and your being part of it is is such a such a privilege, really. It's such a yeah, it's great. So I love it.

SPEAKER_04 16:56

Yeah, no, that's great. So Craig Petty said, uh, just coming into this conversation now, I focus on marketing illusion shows for wedding, uh, for weddings, as it means I stand out. Even if they don't book an illusion show, they treat me as a close-up magician. Uh they yeah, they treat me as a bigger deal. Yeah, as the illusion show adds more credibility. Yeah, it's true. But anything you can do to stand out, now I actually mentioned this in our the sales email that I sent out yesterday. Um about uh because yesterday's email, I don't know if you saw it, but I focused on two sort of stagey pieces, uh decisions, decisions, and idiom. And the thing is, you know, if you if you're getting booked as a close-up magician for a wedding or someone's making the calls, there's two ways you can play this. And I remember years ago it was actually uh Martin Sanderson that told me this, and Martin was probably back then one of the busiest magicians in the UK, without a doubt. Um, and he said to me, you know, if you've got a six six-minute stand-up act you can do at the end of the wedding, you can use that twofold. And I think he got this from Michael Lamar. Michael Lamar years ago had a set of cassette tapes which was all about marketing yourself as a magician. Now, let's say you've got a six-minute stand-up piece, and that could be, for instance, decisions, decisions, decisions by Mark Paul, right? It's an effect that packs into a bag this big, it can fill a room, you're getting multiple people involved, and you're performing to the entire wedding, right? So you've got this, it's sitting there. Someone rings you up for a for a gig. How much do you charge? Okay, so it's do two hours close up. I'll I'll charge 450 quid. Oh, that's a bit much. Well, I I tell you what, if that's if that's a bit much, um okay, I don't I don't usually do this, but I've got something that I could do at the end of the day. I do it to the whole room, lasts about 10 minutes. I usually charge 200 pounds to do this bit, I'll throw it in. Right? So straight away, that's extra value that you're throwing in there. And I go, oh, hang on a minute. Yeah, all right, that sounds good. But the alternative is how much for the two hours? 450 pounds. Oh, that's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll book you. All right, okay. Just to let you know, we've also got the gold package. What's the gold package? Well, with a gold package, we also do this 10-minute stand-up thing at the end. Now, I usually charge £300 for that bit, but seeing as I'm there already, I'll do it for an extra £150. Oh, that sounds great. So that same one trick will work both ways. It will work to secure the gig or as an upsell.

SPEAKER_05 20:26

Again, coming looking at weddings now from my side of the fence, I would say that one of the big things we're looking at for our wedding is um not my magic mic act. No, no, no, no. We're getting that for free, aren't we? Um no, it's um it's not what we're paying for stuff, but how much value we're gonna get out of that thing. So we could hire we could we could get like these flowers down the side of the thing and they'll cost us X amount, but is that gonna bring anything more to the day? No, okay. So yeah, the magician, okay, that much. We've got money to spend, but we want to make sure we get the best value out of it. So if you say to them, you know, oh for an extra hundred and fifty, it's only three hundred, then it's like, well actually, yeah, we've we're saving there, that's gonna that's gonna benefit us in that way.

SPEAKER_03 21:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:20

Um yeah, no, that's that's great advice. So I'm mumbling now. I know what I mean to say, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:27

No, makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 21:28

Um, right, so can I just very quickly say I'm very excited to see this new trick by Craig and Nemed.

SPEAKER_04 21:37

What oh, I've heard about this.

SPEAKER_05 21:40

Well, you talked about it last week, Pete. You spoke about it last week, you said or the week before. You said that Yeah, you said um My memory is going.

SPEAKER_04 21:50

I don't know what the trick is though, do I?

SPEAKER_05 21:53

No, no, I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_04 21:54

No, why Craig's on here? Craig, why haven't you told me about this? Trick. I saw you yeah, he posted it, didn't he?

SPEAKER_05 22:04

That's right, yeah, he posted it. He said that there's a new trick that him sorry, I'm just doing my belt up. There's a new trick that um him and them have been working on. He's gonna present it at the lecture or at the convention. I can't remember if he did lecture or convention, but he's gonna present it on Saturday once, and then I don't know if he's gonna teach it in the lecture or if he's just gonna show it. He might just show it. Um however, once that's done, nobody will see it until it's released. So I'm very, very excited to I mean obviously coming from Nemed, it's gonna be something with flowers and silks and rainbows and all that. No, I'm excited. I think it'll be I think it'll be excellent. It'll be good to see Nem's name on something as well. He's he's a very clever guy. He's got a lot, he's a bit like Andy, you know, he's got a lot of knowledge, and people just you know don't don't know that about him.

SPEAKER_04 22:58

He's got um I think he's got a version of the prestige, you know, the the thingy, Nemid, and then whatever one you choose is kill and the others are hug. Instead of the other way round. Um, right, I will say though, if you are coming to the Alakazam convention, now we did mention this, we recently released the castle wallet. I'm gonna speak about this uh quickly because there was a message here from Turkish Cypriot Guna, 1970, that said, congratulations on selling out. When are you gonna get more castle wallets? I think unless Murphy's have got some and we can buy a few more back, we won't have any more for six to eight weeks. They're being manufactured now, but they take a long time to manufacture, as you can imagine. Now, during the live, I did say that I carry a specific trick in my castle wallet, and that trick is this charged up by Craig Petty. Now, you've seen this, Wayne, because I showed you it when you were down a few months ago. Um, and I performed it on you, I performed it on Lee. I've been doing it in the shop on Saturdays when the regulars come in just to uh get their feedback and everything else. This is great. This is gonna be available at our stand this weekend. So come over, ask for a demo. Um it's superb. But if you've got a castle wallet, this is a perfect addition to it. Perfect addition. It means you don't have to put your own credit cards in the castle wallet because this is a credit card effect. Um, and yeah, it's great, charged up, and I think if I'm not mistaken, Craig may be performing this in his lecture as well. But if not, myself and Craig will be performing it all weekend at the convention. So if you're coming to the Alexand convention and you want to see it, you can pick one up there, charged up by Craig Petty. It is due for release this month anyway, um, but I'm not sure when. Probably towards the end of the month. Um, yeah, so come and see us for that. Let me see what's happening here. Okay, let's know the order. Right, so Will Thompsett said uh regarding this weekend, can you let us know the order of the day, please? I certainly can, because I have got my Alexam Convention souvenir program here. So let me go through and have a look. We have got right, so the running order of the day, as listed here in the Alakazam Convention souvenir brochure, which you can only get your hands on by coming to the convention. So the running order, 9 a.m. is registration and dealers are open. So bearing in mind if you are coming on the Friday, register on the Friday. You'll get your lanyard, you'll get your um brochure, and then you won't have to queue up on Saturday morning because obviously everyone that comes in Saturday, registration opens about 8:30, 9 o'clock. Um, but you have to register before you get in and before you go and see the lectures. So there's going to be a queue on Saturday. If you are coming on the Friday, pop in, even if you're planning to come down, just go straight to your hotel, spend 10 minutes popping into the cinema and register. That way you're ready just to walk in on the Saturday. So the Friday evening, if you're coming early to the convention, we will be at the cinema from about five o'clock onwards for you to register. You can grab a bite to eat. Um, I'm gonna be there, Wayne's gonna be there, Mark Spelman's gonna be there, I think the other artists are gonna be there. We'll be hanging out, we'll be jamming, we'll be chatting. So come and join us on the Friday evening if you're there early. Um, nine o'clock, we've got registration and dealers open. The first lecture is at 10 a.m. And that is Tom Wright. So you want to be registered, so you're you've got time to go to his lecture. Um, each lecture is one hour, and they're gonna be quite tight to one hour because we got a lot happening throughout the day. Then uh 10 to 11, then the next lecture, so between that, you're gonna have half hour to come and grab a drink, have a little browse around the dealers. Half past 11 to half past 12, we've got Mark Spellman lecturing. Then at 12:30 to 2:30, you've got a bit of time to grab some lunch, grab a drink, walk around the dealers, have a chat, have a magic jam and everything else. 2.30 to 3.30, we've got the amazing Craig Petty lecturing. Um, and then 3:30 to 4.15. Once again, you can walk around the dealers. It's your time for 45 minutes. Um, and then at 4.15 to 5.15, we've got David Jonathan lecturing. And at 5:15 to 6 p.m., we've got the final dealers visit, and then at 7:30, we have the Gala Show, which is featuring the amazing Mark Bennett, Tom Wright, Mark Spellman, and the show will be introduced by um someone called Wayne Goodman. Um never heard about and Wayne's gonna be your magical host throughout the day. So he'll be introducing the lectures um and giving you your running orders and stuff like that. Um, but we are gonna be about um and someone wanted to know uh what dealers are gonna be there. So let me find the dealers page and I'll be able to give you a rundown on dealers. Let's have a look at it while you'll find the dealers page.

SPEAKER_05 29:25

Don't forget as well, if you are staying over the Saturday night, Sunday morning, the shop will be open. Yes. Um it's about a mile away from the convention venue. Uh literally a two-minute drive over. Um, and then the shop will be open from 10 o'clock in the morning until 2 o'clock in the afternoon. And myself, Peter, Harry, and Andy uh will be in the shop on hand. It's only a small shop. We're going to make use of the space so you can come in, have a little look around, see some tricks, etc. Um, and that will be on the Sunday from 10am till 2 p.m.

SPEAKER_04 30:02

Yes, but we will say as well, as Wayne just said, it is a small shop. So don't be surprised if not everyone can get in. You know, you you might have to chat amongst yourselves outside, and it will, you know, we'll get as many in as we can, but it depends how many turn up. Maybe no one's staying over and no one turns up, in which case we'll just be chatting together and showing each other tricks. But if you do turn up, it'll be lovely to see you. So the dealer's marketplace, um, we've got obviously Alexand Magic. The other thing I'm gonna say is we're only bringing a few different items with us. So if there's something particular you want us to bring along for you, give us a call in the shop. We can put an order together and bring your order to the convention rather than sending it out, as we do with Blackpool. We're only gonna be bringing about five items with us. So I know there's people going, oh, are you gonna be bringing this? Are you gonna be bringing that? Chances are we're not. So if you want something in particular and you're not visiting the shop on the Sunday, let us know. Place your order, and we'll bring it down. It'll be ready for you to pick up at the convention. So uh the dealer's marketplace, we've got Alexand Magic, we've got our very good friend Astor coming over from Hungary. Um, so he's always got amazing stuff. If you haven't seen Astor stuff, he's got some great stuff. Uh, we've got Mike Davis at the British Secret Service. We've got Colin Klaus at um CCC Magic. We have got Custom Magic, which is John Morton, isn't it? Custom Magic. Yeah. We've got Dave Loosley's going to be there with um, I believe Dave's got two brand new items he's launching at the convention as well. Um, and a lot of these uh dealers as well have got pre-release items that you'll be able to get at a convention before you can get anywhere else, which is great. We've got David Jonathan, obviously, he's gonna be selling some of his wares. Uh Deceptive Secrets, which I believe is Adam Dad's well.

SPEAKER_03 32:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:16

I'm sure it is. Ian Bailey Magic, Magic World, that's James Anthony. He's gonna have some items here. MB Magic, Mark Bennett, Phil Smith's gonna be here. Um, the 1914 will be on Alex Sam stand, I should think. Uh the magic of Wayne Dobson, so our good friend Mike Sullivan's gonna be here. Thomas Moore, um, who does illusions, but he's got some smaller illusions he's gonna bring. Um, and trick trick boom. Nice. Now I know for a fact that two of the hits of Blackpool were Bankable and Ringo by Trick Trick Boom. And I have twisted Noel's arm, and there will be limited amounts available at this convention. So if you've heard the hype, you'll be able to pick them up.

SPEAKER_05 33:08

Well, I've got both of those items, and I can tell you right now, the hype is 100% real. They are amazing.

SPEAKER_04 33:18

Um Craig said on Sunday, are you selling your products as well? Yeah, the shop is open. The shop is open. So you're more than welcome to come to the shop. You can buy anything you want in the shop, you can have a chat, you know, whatever you want to do. You can, yeah, whatever you want. Um, and we have got we've got a local sort of little coffee van that is usually here first thing in the morning, every morning. And we've asked him if he wouldn't mind coming on Sunday morning to sort of sit outside the shop. So hopefully he'll do that. He does fantastic hot drinks, lattes, his chai latte is fantastic. I love those. Um but he also does things like sausage rolls and stuff like that. So that's hopefully going to be there while we're open so you can grab coffees as well. Um, the other thing is as well, Ashford Cinema are really getting behind this convention. We're already in talks about putting one on next year. So hopefully, if you all have an amazing time, we will be doing another one. But they've put on a special menu, they're gonna be doing breakfast from I think it's nine o'clock to 10:30 or something like that. So if you don't grab breakfast at your hotel, they've got breakfast happening there. If you go to the Alexam convention Facebook page, I think Jamie put up the menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner up there. Um, alcohol is served at the uh cinema as well with some special Alexam cocktails on offer. Um, so yeah, I mean we're really looking forward to it. We're we're seriously hyped up for this. It's gonna be a great day, and hopefully it's gonna be the first of many. Umakazam, Colin Jones said, are Alakazam gift cards available at the stand? I believe they are, yes. So if you've got one, bring it along. Um, if not, they're available, uh they're usable at the shop the next day. Um, so it depends what you're after. I mean, obviously, like I said, we're we're only bringing limited stock, but if you wanted other stuff and you've ordered it, we can probably use the gift card on the stand. I can't see why we couldn't. Um, and if not, if you're coming to the shop, it can definitely be used in store. So, yeah, no problem there. Um, so I've got a little trailer to play. Oh, do you want to see it? Yeah, so I will say this is a product that has been out of stock for years. Years, and they just came back into stock today, and they've been handmade by the legend, our new legendary card engineer. We've got two now. We've got Steve O'Watson and we've got the amazing John Fox. Now, John took this project on and he has smashed it. Absolutely smashed it. So let's take a look at this. Let me find it. Here we go. You ready?

SPEAKER_05 36:31

Yep, let's have a look.

SPEAKER_02 36:37

Okay, so with Ocula, you can make a playing card appear inside an envelope just like this.

SPEAKER_07 36:56

Sophie, you write left-handed. Hold your right hand up for me. Hold your hand up, put your other hand on top. That's what I think of prediction. Okay, just give it to you before the trick, that way it's impressive later on. Okay. That's straight in your hand, and I don't want to get to that, and that's important. I'm gonna get a couple of cards selected. Now there's two cards been selected, one inside your mind, and one that you've selected, okay? And we're gonna find them. So the first one goes a little bit like this. So you we'll go for the one inside your mind first. I just do this. Say it was a black colour. No, I'll go further, right? I'll tell you, now actually, I'll show you. Lift your hand up for me. This has been here the whole time. And in summit, hold your hand up for me. In summit is is a red colour from a different colour. I'm gonna slide that out. What was your colour first time? Right, hold on to that for me. Um, I did get two colours selected, so I think this is only fair. We've got the seven displays, and you signed your name for the place of one of the colours. So what? Stare here, stare at me. Ready? Let's do it for the camera as well. All I do is this one card appeared inside here. Now look, I'll try and hold on. Check it out. Check it out. One card inside here which has a signature on it.

SPEAKER_04 39:23

Apparently, John Fox just said he just saw Harry do it on where does he see it? Oh, Facebook. Hmm. I wonder if he's put it on our YouTube channel. If he has, I'm gonna have a look because I haven't even seen that. He literally must have just filmed it now. So let me have you can you grab it and show it? I'm just having a little look see. Let's see if it's up there. Um, while I'm doing this, let us know on the chat. And Jonathan Fox, by the way, he is our new card engineer along with Steve O'Watson. John makes the best stripper decks, Fengali decks, mental photography decks. He is a genius, and he's making quite a few of our gimmicks now. So where we um are releasing the signature Bromley line, it's you wouldn't understand how hard it was to find people of John's calibre and Steve O's calibre to make card gimmicks. The amount of people we tried before we found John, um and they they just couldn't do them to the standard of of Bromley. Um and I will say John has smashed it out apart. When you see these Ocula gimmicks, Ocula gimmicks, they are superb, absolutely superb. Right, let me have a look. Oh, here we go. I've got it. Now I haven't seen this, so let me download it and we can all watch it together. Like a premiere.

SPEAKER_05 41:20

Well, apart from John's.

SPEAKER_04 41:23

Yeah, John's seen it. Right, let's have a look. It's it's an I've got £30 to spend video. Right, shall we watch it? Let's have a go.

SPEAKER_06 41:34

Here we go. Proper visual cards. Yeah, proper visual. Let me show you this one, then. Okay. Pack of cards. It's called Ocular, okay? It's been occupied for years, but it's fine in the packs of cross. There we go. Now it uses this, an envelope, with a hole in the middle. Okay, that is the envelope of mystery. We'll come back to that in just a moment. Now, it does use a pack of cards. I want you to spread through and take out any card you like, alright? Don't let me see it. This one here. Alright, perfect. Uh take out that card, I'll get out the rest of the back. And I want you to sign your name on the front of that card. So when you re when you see it again, you'll recognise that's the only one, right? Okay, well, that card with your signature on it. Okay, perfect. Place the card back for me. And we're gonna give the cards over your cards like this. Now what I want you to do is just random order. Uh for me. Yeah, I'm gonna place your hand up on your hand, place your hand on top. I want you just to think of the colour of your car first of all. Yeah, okay. Now the suit and finally the value. Okay, you thought about that, yeah. Okay, lift up your hand. Something weird is gonna happen, right? I thought it's gonna happen. Well, no, not just yet, right? But this is the envelope mystery, really. Watch this. All I need to do because you thought about your card is if I ripple the cards at this one, two, three. No way. Yes, wait. If I chuck the envelope through, check this out. One card materialises inside the envelope. Now, watch this. There is only one card inside there. You chose any card, you signed it, right? This is unbelievable. You're squiggle on it. Mate, that is unreal. How good is that? Now, that is just one of the routines possible with Oculus. These literally have been unavailable for years, and it's finally back in stock. This is one of my favourite tricks here at Alec Azam, and it's just honestly so good. I recommend it to anybody. And it's pretty easy too, as well. Mate, that looks unreal. I want that one. Like I said, there's tons of it. Two card selections, coin tricks of them, but yeah, this is ocular. All handmade gimmicks are gonna absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_04 43:39

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 43:40

Cheers, mate.

SPEAKER_04 43:42

That's great, right? Lovely. Such a good gimmick. Um, right, a couple of questions come in. So we've got oh we're joined by my uh best mate from Holland, Leo Schmetzers, better known as my uh me old man, my granddad. Um Martin Pearce said, Will we have any of the packet trick pouches at a convention? I think we will, because a few people have been asking for those. Um they are great, by the way. Uh uh at what time does the shop open on Sunday? We should be open from 10 o'clock till two o'clock on Sunday. 10 till 2. Um so, yes, if you want to join us, that will be the time. Don't come before or after, because we won't be here. Uh is there any problem that affects the answer with the wish list? Uh Darren, we're looking into it. We don't know what's happening at the moment. We got our web guys looking into our side of it, but then also the wish list uh software is being upgraded.

SPEAKER_05 45:14

So you should get the question up so people know who that was.

SPEAKER_04 45:18

Sorry. So, yes, there is um an issue with the the wish list not shown in people's accounts, but there's two things that could be. It could be our update to the site, or it could be the wish list app itself who are migrating to a new app, which they're doing ours this week, I think. So it could be either of those, but we are looking into it.

SPEAKER_05 45:42

Some some people different people are experiencing different things here as well. Some people, some people can see a loyal uh a um discount box not checkout, some people can't, some people can see their order history, some people can see their wish list, some can't. Um, it is a big thing that is being sorted out, so yeah, please bear with us. It will be back as soon as it's back up and running, it will just be on the site. Um, but yeah, we we are we have got the guys on it, and it's it will be done, but it is taking a bit of time. Yeah, but it's a big site, you know, it's a big we've got thousands of people on the site, and they've got to go through every single it's not uh and there's a lot of there's a lot of apps on the site, and the apps sort of interact with the site in different ways, you know.

SPEAKER_04 46:30

So there's loads of things that have to make sure nothing's conflicting. Um, yes, we are. Jamie is gonna be doing a vlog stroke little short movie on the Alakazam uh convention, so that will go up on our YouTube channel at some point. Um, so keep your eyes open for that. If you don't subscribe to our YouTube channel, make sure you do. Um but yeah, so that will be happening. Uh Peter, as your expectations of the convention been surprised. Uh a huge thank you to Wayne for making accommodations for his products to us in the US. Also uh magic. Um right, so let's answer these questions. So my expectations have been surpassed. You guys have uh sold us out, and we've got a waiting list of people that want to come. So next year, just to let you know, when we arranged this year's convention, which was a year ago to the day, really, um, when we decided to do one. There was already talks of the cinema being taken over, but this was still in progress. Nothing was really said as to what the plans were or anything else. So that deal has now been done. We know the plans of what's going to happen. Now the work was supposed to be started already, but they've held the work off because they didn't want it to affect our convention. Like I said, the Ashford Cinema have really got behind this and they want it to become a yearly feature. Um, so they've held off any works, but what they've got planned is fantastic. Um now, whether it's really gonna change the convention in the future, um, I know they've they're having a big area built downstairs with a huge LED wall, which sounds phenomenal. Um, but I'm not gonna make any decisions as to yet whether we're gonna be in there or not, because I want to see what the seating arrangement is, because I think all the seating is just gonna be straight seating, so we'll have to decide whether that's gonna be better than the tiered because of the the wall or whether it's not. So we'll have to decide. But it does mean if we are doing a convention next year, it could be bigger, we could have multiple things happening at the same time with switchovers happening, so it is very exciting. So um, yeah, the expectations for this year have have been surpassed. Um, but I hope next year will be even bigger. Um, so we will see. Um, and a big thank you to Wayne for making uh the accommodations for his products to be here for customers in the States.

SPEAKER_05 49:54

Yes, an email went out earlier today. So yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 49:58

Brilliant. Also, do the both of your missus do magic? Now, from someone in the States, missus seems like a weird turn of phrase. It's not for us in the UK. Is that is that your turn of phrase out there, or have you picked that up from us?

SPEAKER_05 50:20

I wonder if that's maybe an expat or he's married to a Brit, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 50:23

Yeah, let us know. I'm interested to know where you got that turn of phrase from because that's a turn of phrase we use. It's more me down in London that would use it rather than Wayne, I think.

SPEAKER_05 50:35

Yeah, I don't think it's a London.

SPEAKER_04 50:37

Yeah, it's a London.

SPEAKER_05 50:39

Especially if I I don't want to slap. Um my my fiance does magic. Uh, every time we get a pack of cards out, she disappears.

SPEAKER_04 50:49

Yeah, Jenny doesn't Jenny doesn't do any magic.

SPEAKER_05 50:53

Trace Tracy does. Um, in fact, we found a little case sorting out some stuff in. We found a little tiny case for her, and she said she wanted to put her tricks in it. She's got um, she does Ghost Deck, which she loves. Nice. Um, she absolutely loves doing um Grandma's Miracle. Yeah. Uh she's got most of my stuff, and of course it's all here anyway, so she can have whatever she wants, really. I'll do a good price on it. Yeah, um, just trying to think what else. She wants me to teach her my Spongebob routine, which I'm I'm gonna at some point. Um, but yeah, she she likes she enjoys and she enjoys watching it as well. She does enjoy watching it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:31

Um so and exciting news, Justine. Uh Tracy is our first lecturer at uh the Alexand Magic Convention 2027.

SPEAKER_05 51:43

There we go. Well done, Trace. I didn't know about that. I look forward to introducing her, that'd be great.

SPEAKER_04 51:50

So uh smooth player 6696 says misses is uh what I picked up from you guys, so that's probably from me.

SPEAKER_05 52:03

Yeah, the missus indoors, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:06

So yeah, no, Jenny doesn't really perform uh any magic, even though I have tried to teach her a trick a few times. Um I remember I'll tell this story quickly before we finish the podcast. So about 15 years ago, no, it was longer than that, about 20 odd years ago, we were at the Magic Circle Convention. Oh, it wasn't a convention back then, it was a dealers' day. We're at the Magic Circle Dealers' Day. So one of our new effects was a thumper. For those in the know, you'll know what a thumper is. So I gave Jen the briefing. Jen, I'm gonna ask uh someone to pick a card, could be any card they want. Um, I'm gonna blindfold myself so I can't see anything. I'm even gonna look away and I'm gonna ask him to show the card around. Okay, so all you need to do is look at the card, and then I'm gonna start naming the suits. And as soon as I'm on the right suit, give me a thump. Right, okay, and then I'll do the same with the value, ask him to concentrate on the value. When I mention his value, give me a thump. Right, great. Okay, you got it? Yeah, got it. Right. So pick a card out. I've made this big thing. You're gonna pick a card, I'm gonna blindfold myself. In fact, you sir, you're gonna make sure I'm not even looking at the direction of the cards. This big build-up, blindfold myself, pick a card. Look at it, right? Okay, sir, just concentrate on whether your card is a heart spade, club, thump, diamond, thump. Right, I'm getting the I'm getting the feeling it's either a club thump or a diamond thump. Right, it's it's one of these. It could be it could be a club, thump, or it could be a diamond or a thump. Okay, all right, let's go, let's go to the value. We'll get back to the suit. Let's go to the value. Just think about it. I want you to really think. And when I reach your um when I reach your value, just think in your mind that's it. Could be an ace, could be a two, could be a three, thump, could be a four, thump, could be a five, thump, could be a six, thump. And this went on, right? Eventually I said, I I don't know, there's something, there's I'm just not picking it up with you. I'll tell you what, we'll try it a bit later. Let's see if we can get a connection. So I turned, I turned around the gentleman went, What are you doing? She went, Oh, I just panicked.

SPEAKER_03 55:03

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 55:05

It's uh yeah, but yeah, that's that's why. Oh the other time I'll tell you, there was a brilliant free car Monty. Sorry, Pete, sorry Pete. Yeah, she's she's not here, she'll never know. No one tell her. Yeah, no, no one tell her. Right. So years ago, there was a Monty trick that came out, and it was really good, and it used black art, right? Okay, so the first the first time I did this was at the um Ipswich magic convention, right?

SPEAKER_05 55:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 55:49

So basically, you show the three cards, put them face down, so you've got two jokers and an ace of spades, right? I now push the ace forward, bring my hand back as I mix the cards. Now, when you turn it over, it's three examinable jokers. Nice, right? It it's knockout. So I've got a crowd of people around me, and I say, look, I'm gonna show you this. Best free card Monty you've ever seen. Okay, so we've got um two jokers and an ace of spades. Okay, all I'm gonna do is mix the ace up like this. Where's the ace? And they point to it, turn it over, it's a joker. Have another go, put turn it over, it's a joker, turn over the middle one. Just as I'm turning over the middle one, Jenny went, Oh, you dropped this.

SPEAKER_03 56:47

Amazing, yeah, yeah. Did you sell many? Not after that, then. Oh my god. But yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:04

But saying that, you know, she she is amazing, Jenny. Um, not so much when she does that, but other than that, she's great.

SPEAKER_05 57:14

Jenny proper makes you laugh when you're least expecting it. She'll say something or do something, and and it's just maybe even unintentionally hilarious.

SPEAKER_04 57:27

Well, if you're coming to the convention, you'll get to meet Jenny in person. So we're all gonna be there. The team's gonna be there. I'm there, Harry's there, um, Jamie's there, Emilio's there, Jenny's there, and um, Andy's there, yeah. We're all gonna be there.

SPEAKER_05 57:47

And whoever that Wayne Goodman is.

SPEAKER_04 57:50

And Wayne's gonna be. I said Wayne, didn't I? No. Well, you're here. So that's red. We've already we've already said you're gonna be there. You're hosting the day. What more do you want?

SPEAKER_05 58:00

Is what the big question everybody wants to know is is Emma and Mikhaila gonna be there?

SPEAKER_04 58:06

I'm not sure. They may pop I don't think they're there for the whole day. I'm not sure. But I think both of them said they were gonna pop in, and Louise was gonna pop in as well.

SPEAKER_05 58:16

Oh, that'll be nice.

SPEAKER_04 58:17

Yeah, so I think and Aid is gonna pop in, Monster Creations. You're joking. I've never met him face to face.

SPEAKER_05 58:25

Ah I've seen his OnlyFans, but you're in for a treat.

SPEAKER_04 58:31

Yeah, so he said he was gonna pop in as well. So yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be a great day. We're all hyped up for it. It's gonna be a really busy weekend, but it's gonna be fun. I just want everyone to have an amazing time. That's it. That's what it's about. It's coming down, it's having fun. I know it's gonna be a lot of people's first convention as well. So here's the thing: it's a lot of people's first convention. So if you're coming and you're coming by yourself and you see a group of people, do not be afraid to go up, sit with them, chat. If you're unsure, find myself, Harry, Wayne, anyone, and just introduce yourself and we'll introduce you to a group. So don't worry about it. Bearing in mind, um the cinema is open as a cinema during the Saturday, so make sure whoever's sitting down has got a lanyard on, otherwise, you might just go and sit with some random family.

SPEAKER_05 59:38

Show him a trick, though. Don't want to see a trick, show me a trick. That's it. I have one I have one very quick question, um, just because we're talking about it, and I don't know if we know the answer. After the show, will the bar be open? No, no, the hotel next door, the bar will be open. Yeah, but will the bar be open in the cinema um until what time?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:00

I'm not sure if it is. I'm not sure. I'll find out when we go on Wednesday, but if it is, it's not going to be open till long, maybe until 11 o'clock or something. But um yeah, I'll find out.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:14

The travel lodge, the travel lodge next door where a lot of people are staying, will have a bar open. So if people want to go and carry on there, they can.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:21

Um, but yeah.

unknown 1:00:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:24

Yeah, it'd be good if we could all stay in the if we could all stay in the cinema for a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:28

Yeah, I'll find out. Um, I'm not gonna be personally, I'm not gonna be staying out that late on the Friday night because I've got to be in the theatre at 7.30 the following morning. Um, and then obviously we got the shop on the um on the Sunday as well, but that's a bit later, so that's manageable. But um, so I won't be out late, late. I'm gonna stay out to about nine or ten on the Friday. Um, but on the Saturday, uh, I will obviously, if they're open, hang around for a drink or two to celebrate the end of the convention.

unknown 1:01:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:06

And that brings us nicely to three o'clock.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:10

Indeed. Is that it? Oh, I've got one more before we go. Can I play this? Because this has literally just come in. Just come into stock. So let's play this and we'll come back and say our goodbyes.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:23

Perfect.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:31

Right, Rach, we're gonna try a psychological experiment. Okay, so I've got some bits. That's exactly the stuff. Well, if it works, not if it doesn't. Um so I've got a little picture that we're in a moment we're gonna imagine colouring in, and I've also got a uh little list of um coloured pens that uh we're gonna use in a moment. Words are so difficult, aren't they? Oh, they are. So um to start off, I'm gonna give you you're gonna make two decisions. One's gonna be quite a big random decision, and one's gonna be a little tiny tweak of a decision, a 50-50, that could change everything. Okay. So the responsibility. I know. Um so the first thing to do is to give us a number between say one and thirty. That's gonna be your big decision. Go 12. 12 is a good number. Okay, and what we're gonna do is we're gonna use that number to basically choose a couple of colours. So I'm gonna stick this paper clip on so we can keep track, and that's gonna be position number one, and then I'm just gonna count along 12 basically. So that'd be two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, which would take us to between the blue and the green pens. Yeah. So that's um chosen us a couple of colours, so blue and green, and obviously, if you'd said 11, we'd have been between the green and yellow, and ten would have put us somewhere else, you get the idea.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:59

Um, that was the big decision. Now so there's a small 50-50 decision that you get to make, and that is you're going to use those two pens, uh the blue and the green, to colour in the house. Okay. So, what colour do you colour in the roof? Do you go blue or green? I think the roof, um I'm thinking green. Thinking green for the roof. Yeah. And then blue for the body of the house. So it'd look a little bit like that then.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:33

Well, yes, probably that's kind of what I had wrong.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:40

So if you're interested in that brand new one that's just dropped on our website, you can go pick one up now. Um little question, Wayne. Uh, if you go to the bar, will you have the guess what Wayne's drinking contest like you did last week?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:04

Um maybe after the show, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:08

I think I think next year, when we have it, I mean we're we're thinking of changing things up next year. We'll see how this year goes, but we're thinking of changing things up. We might have some fun little okay. I'm gonna no, I'm not gonna ask that question. We're we're gonna yeah. We're already thinking about next year, and um it's gonna be great. This year, let's get this year done and dusted, then we'll get on to next year.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:42

Um, Simon By the way, the the question isn't what is Wayne drinking? When you come up to me at the bar, you should say, Hey Wayne, what are you drinking?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:52

That's it. That's it. Um Wayne does love to be purchased a drink. So if you would like to buy Wayne a drink, he uh he loves it. That's his favourite thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:07

We need to we need to veto that until after the after the uh the show. Or before. No, no P. Or before, because I know what people like Leah like.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:24

Right, so we are good. We are at the end of this week's live podcasty thing. So let's say our goodbyes, Wayne.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:36

Yeah, but thank you very much, everyone, for viewing and tuning in. Um, we'll be back next week.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:41

I'm not sure. Oh actually, we're gonna try and be back next week. We've got a special guest arriving tomorrow. We've got the amazing David Jonathan coming here because he's gonna be lecturing for us on Saturday. Um, we are also filming or we're doing A live academy, which I'm going to end with the trailer to David Jonathan's Live Academy. If you ain't got a ticket, go pick one up. Even if you're coming to the convention, the Academy, I think there's only one trick that's overlapped between the Academy and the convention lecture. So this is a majority of new material happening in the Academy. So you can pick up your tickets online now, and that's going to be happening next week. But we have got some filming with David Jonathan, filming a couple of new products and stuff like that happening. But what we'll do is we'll try and have um a live next Tuesday as well, and we'll try and get David Jonathan on as a guest.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:41

That'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:42

Yeah?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:43

Yeah, that'll be awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:45

Brilliant. So we're staying in that show.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:47

Is he staying is he staying at the shop all week?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:51

Oh nice.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:52

Yeah, so he's gonna be down here all week doing stuff with Alex Am and hanging out and filming bits and bobs for Alex Sam. Yeah, and he he's filming stuff for Alex Am Unlimited and uh bits and bobs like that. So yeah, it's gonna be great. So oh and also I will say if you are coming to the academ uh to the convention on a Friday night, we may be filming footage for a couple of new product trailers. So we might get you involved in that.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:22

Very nice.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:24

So if you want to see yourself, if you want to see yourself on a future product, make sure you come over and uh be part of that.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:32

Brilliant. Right, so Wayne, thank you as always for joining us. Thank you for having me. See you next week. Indeed, and thank you guys for tuning in. It's always far more fun with you guys here. So I'm gonna leave you with the trailer to David Jonathan's Academy, and we will see hopefully a lot of you on Friday evening, if not Saturday, if not next Tuesday, back here on the Alakazam live podcast. See you then.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:02

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 day. 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.