Yeah? Have you been taking mushrooms tonight?

No.

I mean, you know, that, I guess, mind-altering, you know, is literally what magic is.

But if there is a place where magic exists, I haven't... found it, except for just the times where you do something that...

I'll tell you, I watched a YouTube video of this three-year-old girl watching a train arrive for the first time.

It was going around Facebook.

And just seeing the look of wonder in her eyes, it really moved me because... you, you remember, I guess childhood might be that place where magic exists because when you're seeing things for the first time, you don't know how these things work.

But, I mean, how easy is that to do and make it look very convincing?

true.

Like unless, you know, all of a sudden, you know, something falls out of your pocket and they're like, oh, it's that guy's ring that he's, that's supposed to be over there.

It's hard to cover that up.

But when your back's against the wall and you have to jazz quick, that's where the good juice comes from.

That's where the good stuff comes from.

And I think I found that the only times I think I bombed, just maybe that I wasn't what the room needed at that moment, was when I was opening for musicians.

Like I went on tour with Jason Mraz.

And

Okay.

Listen.

I'm so excited.

John Jay doesn't prepare, but I have to.

I'm so excited you're in here.

We didn't set anything up.

I got a deck of cards here.

do that? That is crazy.

Yeah

... you, you kind of keep refining and coming up with new spins on it.

But I'd say some, uh, some c- bits or routines in the show come really quick.

Like, it, it could be an idea that I have on a Monday, and I'm able to get a version of that idea to beta test by the weekend.

Other times it's, you know, many weeks or months, some bits years they're on the back burner until finally they're, the little m- you know, like I'll have a crush on a trick that I wanna do, and o- often it's because it's something old, or I remember from when I was a kid and I g- or I've, I've got a, I've got an idea about how to take it and make it about something that feels relevant and new, but it's missing some little extra secret sauce.

And, you know, I've got a, you know, a running note of those ideas.

And sometimes the missing link will come to me.

Maybe give a final parting message.

Great spot to see a show.

There's like 2,200 people in there, but everybody's like 100 feet away, so at the most.

And so it's gonna be, it's gonna be in your face.

I mean, and I've got some pretty big and crazy ones to try out.

Oh, they might have-

I'm from St. Louis, Missouri originally.

Great spot to see a show.

There's like 2,200 people in there, but everybody's, like, 100 feet away, so, at the most.

And so it's gonna be, it's gonna be in your face.

I mean, and I've got some pretty big and crazy things to try out.

83127.

83127.

Oh, not 85.

Okay, 83127.

But they didn't say

that.

Interesting.

So what happened? So full story.

The first time I did Jay Leno, and I grew up watching Jay Leno.

It was a big deal for me to get booked on The Tonight Show.

And he famously never had magicians on.

Horrible.

Last trick, you're like, "Wow."

Tell, geez, Teller does this one bit.

He, like, uh, he's got a pane of glass.

He has somebody draw a portrait of a buddy on this pane of glass, and then he puts it in a bag, and he shatters it, and you're seeing all these broken glass pieces.

You're like, "Okay, where's this going?" And then I think he shakes them out into a tray, and then at some point, then the pane of glass comes back out, all in one piece, and it's the perfect-

Right

... again," right? So the next thing needs to try to do something that's like...

I was like, "Maybe time travel.

Last trick you're like, "Wow."

Oh, geez, Teller does this one bit.

He, like, he's got a pane of glass.

He has somebody draw a portrait of a buddy on this pane of glass, and then he puts it in a bag and he shatters it.

And you're seeing all these broken glass pieces.

You're like, "Okay, where's this going?" And then I think he shakes them out into a tray, and then at some point, then the pane of glass comes back out all in one piece, and it's the perfect drawing.

Right

... again, right? So the next thing needs to try to do something that's like, I was like, "Maybe it's time travel.

[laughs]

I...

Now, I don't know if you can tell, you probably can't unless you've got X-ray vision, but there's one card facing the other way in the deck.

So there's 52 cards, but one of them is facing the wrong way.

What card do you think is facing the wrong way? Ace of spades.

Okay, now that...

It might be.

We love you, we need you, and when you see a car, just stop and wait for it to pass.

You're kind of like losing or winning.

Well, like, when you watch your friend's bomb, I'm sure both of you feel like it's not your friend.

The room is not just feeling that thing.

Or maybe it's new bits, but you know your guy's a great comedian, right? But with magic, you know, like...

something either has to go wrong or you just are bad.

The Magic Castle, people get pretty drunk, so I was hosting a show and a buddy was performing, doing his set, and just this lady, drunk lady, stood up, this isn't funny, this isn't magic.

like she was trying to rally the room, like calling this guy horrible.

All right, Justin, pen the email for her.

[laughs] Columbia Records

... you know, like 13, 13 CDs for a dollar or something.

Uh, I sent in, and I didn't make any selects.

Like, I, I, I do not remember selecting, but I remember getting a, a collection of CDs, uh, including Billy Joel, uh, The Who, uh, Poison... uh, Weird Al Yankovic fat, uh, like certain, uh, g- there was, um, uh, Jon Bon Jovi, Guns N' Roses, and sever- like The Who became one of my favorite bands.

Is it because I was impressionable and I just got that CD, or, you know, are they as great as I thought, think and thought they were? I don't know.

Billy Joel became one of my favorite musicians ever.

I don't know how, I mean, I was just, it was just this time, and it showed up in the mailbox.

What is your, uh, what's your sales pitch?

Yeah

... that's, that's, that was real, you know? Or authentic.

And then I think when I started to, um, make the show a little autobiographical, like, as we were editing it, and I was like, "You know, I've got a, I've got a picture of me as a kid doing that thing.

Let's put that in there." And, you know, I feel like then people started to get to know me, and I think if there's anything magicians rarely, magicians rarely, um, are thought of as, like s- like, uh, human, you know? 'Cause they're-

[laughs]

... robots and AI.

So we do a thing where he's been, uh, but he's an accountant and a consultant, so we hired him to consult for this robotics company about their, their, you know, their finances, and he has to sign an NDA.

We wanna show him what this company's working on.

Okay.

He prescribed magic as physical therapy.

So cards have always been, uh, they've always fascinated me.

And you can tell a lot about somebody by what card you ask them.

Like, if I, if I said, "Ari, name a card," and I will in a second, don't do it yet, I could learn a lot about you, okay? A lot of people say ace of spades, queen of hearts, right? Those are people who are uncreative, right? If I were to ask you to name a card, what would you say, Frazier?

Uh, jack of, uh, club.

Jack of trades.

You said (laughs) jack of hearts.