- You need to master slight of hand to be a good magician.
(mellow electronic music)
It's not really helping.
What's up, guys?
Welcome back, today I'm gonna run through
a bunch of Q and A questions that I dropped on my Instagram.
By the way if you're not following my Instagram,
go check it out now chrisramsay52.
If you enjoy the videos that I put up on this channel,
to help support me go ahead
and hit that like button and subscribe.
If you're new here, strap yourselves in.
That was all, let's go.
How do you call yourself, magician or artist?
Magician works, yeah.
YouTuber.
Content creator.
What is your view on TV magicians?
Uh, I think TV is a dying platform.
Broadcast companies are shutting down left right and center.
Ratings are dropping.
So I think the new platform is online,
the streaming services and that type of thing
so I think it's funny how people
still believe that being on a TV show
is the biggest thing in the world right now,
when we're moving so quickly towards the internet.
But, hey, all good, man, do your thing.
For those who can't afford all the magic out there
how would you recommend we choose our favorite effects?
I also think you don't need to spend
that much money on magic to be good at it.
Buy one book, one really good book,
study it in and out and that should give you
plenty of material to practice.
And all you need is a deck of cards and like a $10 book.
I'll leave a link below if you guys are interested.
What is your favorite cardistry move right now?
Ooh!
This one, I've been practicing water bend.
(smooth electronic music)
Getting there, not so bad, still practicing it.
I've been doing it for probably two or three days right now,
probably put, I'd say three or four hours into it total.
How'd I get started in photography?
I did a 365 project, started off
with my phone on my Instagram.
One picture a day for a whole year,
card, magic related, that type of thing.
And from the beginning to the end
you could see my progress and my progression.
I've since deleted a lot of those photos
just 'cause my OCD took over.
But that really helped me to develop an eye
for composition and lighting, etcetera, yeah.
Any advice to magicians on approaching
strangers without being awkward?
(sighing)
Man, if,
like if you're just gonna go up to somebody
and be like, hey, can I show you a magic trick?
That's pretty awkward in itself, so good luck with that.
But if you find yourself a naturally awkward person,
I would say, work on your social skills outside of magic
and that should help you approach people.
But if you're a confident person
and just awkward when it comes to magic,
then I would say, get comfortable enough with your magic
so that you don't have to think about it
and that you can just be yourself.
How do you motivate yourself to keep working hard
when others in your society discourage you from doing magic?
Uhhh, haters gon' hate.
They hate us cause they ain't us.
I try not to focus on anything except my own vision,
so I got this vision, it's a path,
it's one straight line to where I need to be,
I don't know where that is but I know the direction.
If I listen to positive criticism I get pulled on this side.
If I listen to negative criticism I get pulled on that side
so I just try to kind of not listen to anybody
and just do my own thing.
Was there ever a time where you felt like you
were done with magic or had to take a break, why or why not?
Yeah, definitely I definitely think that
no matter what it is, whether it's music
or art or magic or whatever,
I think you can definitely get saturated
if you're in it for too long,
and YouTube as well, everything,
so it's good to take little breaks here and there
and focus on other things that you're passionate about,
in the meantime.
What was your first ever gig like?
Super awkward.
What should I do if people are trying
to belittle me or piss me off when doing magic?
(laughing)
Uhhh, I'mma try really hard not to belittle you
or piss you off by responding to that comment.
What is the most difficult trick you've performed?
Ooh.
So this is something I actually performed
in New York a couple weeks ago.
I had never done it before for a live audience,
never even done it for anyone really.
I did a whole speech about the importance
of vulnerability when performing,
and to demonstrate that I performed a trick
that I had never performed in my life
that was super difficult.
And here's how it went down.
(applause)
Alright, thanks for joining me.
You work out, nah?
Alright.
So what I'm gonna do right now, and this is,
I'm being genuine, I talked to people backstage.
This trick that I'm gonna do uses two decks of cards,
they're different on the back but same on the faces,
standard cards, I'll show you in a second.
Twice as dangerous.
The thing about this effect though
is this is not supposed to work, alright?
And that's a weird thing to say
and I'm not just saying that to hype it up.
It's not supposed to work.
I've never done something like this.
Usually as a magician we want the big payoff, right?
We want, wow, right?
So it's so counterintuitive for me to do something,
not knowing if it's gonna work.
Kinda just having faith that it will.
And here's the thing, if it does,
the risk of appearing vulnerable
in front of everybody will have paid off.
But if it doesn't, it'll be great content for the channel.
And that's the whole idea.
So, sir, you're gonna help me out with this.
Take these cards out.
And I want you to give 'em a shuffle.
I will give mine a shuffle,
first of all, if you can, quickly show everybody
this is literally a standard deck of cards,
there are no duplicates or anything like that,
and I shouldn't have to explain it.
Yeah, good enough, good enough.
Alright now give it a shuffle.
Maybe a little shuffle lesson, can you do one of these?
Little bridge shuffle.
(audience laughing)
Oh, nice, one of these, maybe.
You got this.
- Nah I still can't.
- Alright.
I've got the finger muscles.
(audience laughing)
Crutches, see.
Okay, you've mixed up yours, right?
And I've mixed mine up.
Take these cards and I'm gonna take yours.
Perfect.
Put 'em behind your back.
And give 'em a cut, so cut it in half anywhere you like.
And complete that cut.
Let me know when that's done.
Is it done?
Would you like to do it again, would you like to cut again?
It honestly doesn't matter at this point,
'cause like I said it's probably not gonna work.
So just cut to your heart's desire.
- Okay I'm good.
- Is that done?
Take the top card and put it in your pocket
and do not look at it.
Whatever you do, don't look at it.
That done?
Okay.
Take the cards back, I don't need 'em anymore.
So, yeah, that's fine.
(sighing) This is the moment, right?
This is the moment where we each have a card in our pocket,
from two completely shuffled decks
that we switched and shuffled again
and you chose a random card, I chose a card,
and we each put that in our pockets.
And we'll kinda just hit.
- Alright.
- Like I said, if this works, it'll be worth it.
But if it doesn't, I'm still gonna
get a round of applause, right,
'cause this'll be uploaded to my channel I guarantee you.
(audience laughing)
I've got one card in my pocket.
The four of clubs.
- Do I take mine out?
- Yup.
- Shut up!
(audience laughing)
(applause)
- Woohoo!
(laughing)
You did it!
(laughing) (applause)
You did it!
- [Assistant] Am I a magician now?
- Yeah, absolutely!
This couldn't have happened without you
doing exactly what you did, so thank you for your time.
Give him a round of applause, thank you guys, everybody.
You're awesome, thank you.
(applause)
Just a bit of context, I know you don't see me
put a card in my pocket but I actually did,
I don't know why I felt the need to palm that card
but there was a card going in my pocket.
So that was a really really cool effect that I came up with
and it went well, so yeah.
What advice do you have for growing
your online presence in social media?
Don't follow formats that everybody else is doing.
Dabble in new formats, create your own format,
try to come up with your own style,
whether that's incorporating music
or the way you film or the way you talk to the camera
or what lens you use or whatever it is,
just experiment and try new things.
If you follow all the trends that everybody else is doing,
you're never gonna be better than those people,
you'll always be catching up while that person
is focused on the next big thing.
Growing your presence on online,
I mean, collaborating is a really good way to do that,
but really, just original, creative content is the way to go
and a lot of people are following
what other people are doing
because that has been the formula for success,
but those people, all they're doing is waiting
for the next big thing to follow,
versus the person who's creating those trends.
So try to be a trendsetter instead.
If you had to give up one of your passions,
what would you choose?
Anthropology.
That's not really a passion of mine, so,
I don't know. (laughing)
Are you gonna Snapbacks once again?
Yes, V two coming soon.
How do you overcome the fear of not belonging to something
not only in magic, but in life?
I've never really wanted to belong.
I know it sounds cliche.
I'm not one to follow the herd,
I'm one to really just do my own thing,
and if people like it they like it.
If they don't like it, I mean, that's on them.
Doesn't really affect me.
How did your parents react when you first told them
you wanted to do magic for a living?
I guess they were reacting
like any concerned parent would be
when you tell them you have an addiction. (laughing)
They want the best for me, so at first they were like,
yeah, maybe you shouldn't do that.
It's kind of like telling your parents
you wanna be a pirate.
What do you think are the kinds of people
that you should surround yourself with to ensure success?
Successful people, no, honestly, doesn't matter, man.
I surround myself with people that I care about
and people that care about me.
Hector Chadwick, Hector who coincidentally is an author
of one of my favorite mentalism books,
The Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick,
comments, would you like to swing on a star,
carry moonbeams home in a jar
and be better off than you are,
or would you rather be a mule?
I think swinging on a star sounds really good.
Although mule comes in a close second.
What camera setup do you use?
I leave all of my camera setup
in the description forever if you guys are interested,
there are links to everything I use.
I'm shooting this right now on the 5D Mark IV.
How do you come up with stories to tell your magic?
I don't come up with them, they happen.
So things that happen to you, you probably have stories
that you just don't remember or recall,
but there are tons of little things
that happen in our lives that we can use
as justifications or contexts to a magic effect.
Pick apart those little quirks.
You know, comedians do that a lot.
They don't just come up with jokes,
they come up with jokes that are related to them
and that relatable humor makes
for great engagement with the audience.
And I think the same goes for magic.
If you relate it to something that actually happened,
you sound more authentic and sincere,
thus they more easily connect with what you're saying.
Hey Chris, can you get too old to start cardistry,
I'm 32 and do I waste my time?
Never.
I mean, what do you wanna be, a professional cardist?
I mean, lemme tell you,
even the most successful cardists in the world,
they're not rich.
If your goal is to make money with cardistry,
is it too late?
I mean, eh.
But, if it's just to learn cardistry,
you're never too old to learn anything.
Most anticipated game for 2018?
It's gotta be Red Dead II.
I'm gonna binge the crap out of that game.
You won't see me for like a week.
Who would you choose to make a meal for, alive or dead?
Probably Gordon Ramsay.
- Where's the lamb sauce?!?
- I would make, like, just a standard meal
and watch him pick it apart,
'cause I think that would be a great video.
Do you have any family, like mum and dad?
I mean, imagine if I didn't.
If I just had no bellybutton.
Yeah, I was congened in a test tube.
My mom was a beaker and my dad was a Bunsen burner.
After slamming juliusdein in one of your videos,
what lead you to hanging out at Blackpool?
I don't recall slamming juliusdein in a video.
I recall talking about ethics
and sort of how I felt about coaching the audience
and that type of thing.
Here's the biggest misconception in our society.
You don't have to agree with someone to be compassionate.
If I disagree with someone, doesn't mean I hate them.
And same goes for, if I love someone,
doesn't mean I have to agree with everything they stand for.
And that's just a big misconception in our society today.
I see a lot of these debates going online
on Facebook and stuff about recent events
and just because you are here with something
doesn't mean I can't love you as a person.
Or, just because I don't like you
doesn't mean I can't agree with what you stand for.
That's just the way it is.
Perermckinnon, what is it like typing
on your laptop keyboard with such large fingers?
You know what it's kinda like,
it's kinda like using chopsticks while wearing mittens.
(chuckling)
What advice can you give vloggers
who are just getting started
and don't know what topic they want?
Figure that out, figure out what the hell you're doing.
What sort of advice would you give to someone
that is going to do their first gig soon?
I would say, they've hired you already,
which means they already like you.
Take it from there.
Can you make this your last question?
Uh, yep.
Alright guys, hope you enjoyed that little Q and A session,
thank you so much for all the questions.
On my Instagram again, go follow me on Instagram
if you're not already.
Follow me on Twitter @chrisramsay52.
Thanks for watching, show some love on this video
by hitting the like button, subscribe if you're new here
and get ready for some brand new content this week.
I've got a few ideas this week that I'm gonna put up
which I'm super excited about.
But let me know in the comments below
what type of content you guys would like to see.
What would you like to see,
would you like to see more card reviews,
more performances, more tutorials, more puzzles,
whatever it is, drop a comment below,
I will check those out and try
to respond to as many as I can.
And we'll see ya on the next video.
Pea, ra!
(fast paced electronic music)