Quiz: Magic or Mentalism? #273

**Nick Kay** (0:11)
Well, hello friends, welcome to the Magic Guys podcast, episode 200
We are well and truly getting up there. Friends, if you are watching live on the YouTube, you will see you're not accompanied by your normal Magic Guy crew. And that is because both Josh and both Doug have fallen ill at the very last minute, and quite literally not more than a few hours ago. Thankfully, we are such a good, tight-neck community here in Australia that I simply put the call out to some of my most wonderful friends, and I have two wonderful guests. So please allow me to introduce them both. Firstly, we have all the way from New South Wales, our good friend Adam Axford. Say hello, Adam Axford.

**Adam Axford** (0:51)
What's up, gang? Great to be here.

**Nick Kay** (0:53)
It was great having you on the show, and your interview last time caused quite a stir. It was fantastic, in the best way possible. You had some beautiful thoughts on the way you present Magic and Surfboard. And then we have literal Victorian magic royalty. Friends, Anthony Demasi is honestly known as the nicest guy in magic, and I could not agree anymore. You know him as many things. I know him as the most wonderful person in magic. Please, everyone, say hello to Anthony Demasi. Say hi, Adam.

**Anthony Denali** (1:21)
Hello. Hi, everyone. Great to see you all.

**Nick Kay** (1:24)
Again, so friends, thank you for being part of the show. As you know, this is a live show. We have questions and comments you can make. Let's have a quick hello to who's in the comments. We have the Mystery Box Studio. Good to see you, friend. Hock Valley. That's a new one. Good to see you, friend. Scotty Link. Good to see you. Drago Tia. Good to see you. Tim Askin. Them questions, friends. Today's episode is going to be a good one, but we're going to start the same episode. We always like to do is get your speak pipes. We have one sent in from Gehan who has a question, so this is going to be put to the group. Gehan, you have the floor. Hey, Magic Guys.
Gehan here. I know both Nick and Josh, you perform Solution by Michael Murray, the Rubik's Cube trick.
For the final reveal about the Spectator, Gehan, he's a mime.

**Adam Axford** (2:10)
He's got the Rubik's Cube fully sold.

**Nick Kay** (2:12)
There's currently two different ways I see people do it. One is obviously bringing it fully sold, and the other one is where the Spectator brings it forward, and there's one more move to do, and the Spectator gets to do that final move out in the open.
Have you played around with both methods?

**Adam Axford** (2:29)
Do you have a preference? Yeah.

**Nick Kay** (2:31)
Just want to know about that. Thank you.
Hey, Magic Guys. Oh, that's playing again. I know both Nick and Josh, you perform Solution by Michael and- That's enough out of you, Gehan. Thank you kindly for sharing. So for those of you that aren't aware of the Solution, it's an effect in which you give a Spectator seemingly a mixed cube, Rubik's Cube, and you ask him to twist it behind their back. After a certain amount of time, you then ask him to then pull the cube out from behind themselves to see it's solved. And the question he's asking is either one, is it better to show it entirely solved once they pull it from behind their back or for it to be one move short? So they pull it out, so there's one move short, then they complete the solve in front of you and then they do the reveal. So, friends, let's put this to the man, Anthony, first. What do you think?

**Anthony Denali** (3:22)
It's such a difficult yes or no answer.
I think that it depends on the type of audience that you're performing for. Sometimes people can see that you've made an error and they like, that's the thing they remember. That's the one thing that they point out at the end, oh, the guy did a mistake, he made a mistake but then came good. So it really depends, I think, on who you're performing for in the audience, like the crowd, but I would probably say, if I had to choose, I would probably say, it's probably better just to do it fully solved and it just comes out as like a killer, more confidence. The audience just go, wow, you nailed it.
But it depends on the persona, it depends on your character and it depends on your persona. The character is the most important thing. So if you are a performer that's more, creates more of a vulnerable on stage kind of character, then the audience are going to be like, oh no, you've made a mistake. Then they're rooting for you for it to go really well. If they're expecting your character to be more confident and just nail it every time, then it's a little bit unexpected as well. It just depends on how you play it, I think. It's a performance.