A four-year-old “vanishes” a toy car so perfectly that a grown magician tears apart a couch looking for method. That story kicks off a return visit with Andy as we reopen his desert island list and ask the question every working performer eventually faces: what actually deserves a permanent place in your case when your standards change, your venues change and your taste gets sharper?
We walk back through the routines that still hold up under real audience pressure, from Three Fly and ring and rope to the cups and balls as the ultimate training ground for timing, audience management and misdirection. Then the tough decisions: what gets swapped when you stop performing something, when you find a cleaner construction, or when you realise a plot deserves deeper study. Expect practical talk on Spellbound as more than a move, billet work that strips away fiddly props and why The Grail remains a brutally direct card at any number that can silence a room.
The conversation gets opinionated in the best way when we banish an infamous comedy prop and debate the line between a quick gag and a shortcut that cheapens the magic. We also hit the personal picks: the one guest Andy would want on the island, a memory he’d replay on hard days, the horror story of being turned away for “witchcraft” and the show he wishes he could have seen live. If you care about close-up magic, stand-up magic, sleight of hand, mentalism and building a repertoire that lasts, you’ll get plenty to steal.
Andy Smith’s SOS:
Care Package. Trick That Can’t Be Explained
Banishment. Sponge Ding Dong
Guest. Max Maven
Memory. His toddler son accidentally making a toy cars vanish
Horror story. Being told not to perform because the spectator thought it is witchcraft
Show. Ricky Jay’s Show
Find out more about the creators of this Podcast at www.alakazam.co.uk
