Stuart McDonald’s Mirrors, Metrics, and Magic! #286

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

They're guys, they do magic. They are The Magic Guys.

Josh Norbido (0:11)

Ladies and gentlemen, what's up? What is up? What is up?

Welcome to episode 286 of The Magic Guys. To my left, we've got Nicholas Cage.

Nick Kay (0:23)

That's right, my name is Nicholas K. Cage. And joining us is Daddy Doug. Give it up for Daddy Doug.

Doug Conn (0:30)

I'm going to go by D Coolio. D Coolio. That's my 80s name.

Josh Norbido (0:37)

I like it.

Doug Conn (0:38)

Look at me be inconsistent. It's like four weeks in a row. What's going on?

Josh Norbido (0:43)

And your camera quality is getting better each week as well. You're looking very crystal clear.

Doug Conn (0:49)

I'm home a lot now, so I got time to dial stuff in.

Josh Norbido (0:53)

I love it. And how have the videos been going? You've been doing some regular viewership, I've noticed.

Doug Conn (0:57)

Yeah, you know what? It's surprisingly a lot of work, but I'm in for it. I'm going out for one tonight. Going to film a bunch of magicians at an open mic event. Should be a train wreck. I can't wait to put it on camera.

Josh Norbido (1:09)

Do you find that you become more social when you know you're also going to make some cinematography from it or do you find that it's the other way around?

Doug Conn (1:20)

Yeah, I feel myself going out. Tonight is a night I've been, it's been on my radar for over a year to get to this event and having that little extra incentive to do something.

I'm going in knowing that this isn't going to be a great theater, a night of theater, but it'll be an interesting night. And knowing that I can share some of that gives me incentive to get to it as opposed to putting it off because it's not going to be that good, you know what I mean? With all due respect to every performer who will be there, then maybe it will be great, but we'll find out. Tune in later this week, YouTube Doug.

Josh Norbido (1:57)

No, it makes a lot of sense. Makes a lot of sense. And Nick was just telling us the craziest story off screen. Because last week you guys might remember there was a bit of a kaffapel, it was a bit late to the episode because there's crazy construction going on at his unit. But Nick, tell them what the hell you just told us.

It busted through your apartment or the complex.

Nick Kay (2:20)

So the weirdest thing happened, I think it was Friday morning, we got up super early, it was myself, Adam Axford, friend of the pod, and we went and did this performance at the MCG on Melbourne Cricket Ground for the NFL show. That was all great, did all that shtick, and then got home and did all the constructions. One of the construction workers come over and said jokingly, like, yo man, do you use deer in your show? Because one just ran out of your apartment busting through the glass. I'm like, what are you talking about?

And he was like, a deer ran through your apartment block and destroyed everything. I'm like, you're kidding me. And I wouldn't have believed it, then he showed me the video, and it literally was just this, just ran out of broken glass.

Josh Norbido (3:02)

And you hear it shattering through the glass window and just bolting out onto the road.

Nick Kay (3:09)

I'll post some bits on the Discord for you guys to scope out, but it was pretty funny, just like how random that was. But within 48 hours, everything was patched up, good to go, and you wouldn't have known. You wouldn't have known that there was a bleeding animal running around my apartment block. But here we are.

Josh Norbido (3:25)

And here we are. And here we are. And our guest today sports our haircut, which is why we allowed him to come on. Well, you have to shave your head. He's like, I'm ahead of you on that. So we're like, this is fantastic.

So ladies and gentlemen, let's dive into it. This is a Penn & Teller Fool Us winner, international magic champion, Tedx Speaker. He combines world-class magic with a fascinating approach to creativity and problem-solving. And we're going to dive into a lot of that, his unique characters, and his very interesting pre-creative process on how to continually improve the magic that you're doing. So please give it up for it's Stuart McDonald.

Stuart McDonald (4:24)

Thank you Stuart.

Nick Kay (4:26)

Stuart McDonald, welcome to The Magic Guys Podcast. Please tell our friends who are you and what do you do?