The Steve Faulkner Podcast

I've been trying to get Peter Nardi on for ages, and when we finally sat down we just started talking and hit record to see where it went. No plan, no structure, and it turned into one of the most open conversations I've had on here.

Peter built Alakazam from a bloke ordering tricks nobody else could get, off the back of daily lunch breaks at Davenports in Charing Cross, into one of the biggest magic companies in the world. We go right back to that, the £100 a week dream, building the first website out of a Programming for Dummies book, and the morning he rang up a brand new job and said he wasn't coming in.

But the bit that really stayed with me is him admitting that for six or seven years before lockdown, the passion had gone. Coming in, watching the clock, going home. And how his son Harry stepping up brought that energy back into the building and into him.

We also get into what a magic shop actually is to people, why customers ring up to tell Harry their parents have died, magicians who feel the need to prove how clever they are by calling out a double lift in the comments, why old tricks are not worse tricks, and Peter's genuinely brilliant method for getting through an eight hour download without losing your mind.

Plus a confession from me about a box of Alakazam review copies I've been sitting on for four years.

Alakazam Magic: alakazammagic.com

Thank you to my sponsor Abracircle. They create amazing websites for magicians. I'm very grateful for their support, so please click on the link and have a look.

https://www.abracircle.website/steve-faulkner-podcast-promo

 

Newsletter: https://stevefaulkner.com/newsletter
Online Magic membership: https://onlinemagic.co
Steve on Instagram: @stevefaulkner
Real Magic Review on Instagram: @realmagicreview

Arthur Benjamin is a mathematician. When I tell people that, I watch their eyes glaze over a little, and I get it, because that was me too, until I saw him perform at a convention years ago and it became one of the most entertaining things I've ever watched live.

Thank you to my sponsor Abracircle. They create amazing websites for magicians. I'm very grateful for their support, so please click on the link and have a look.

https://www.abracircle.website/steve-faulkner-podcast-promo

We talk about how a kid who did children's magic shows in Cleveland, Ohio ended up as a professor doing mental math as performance, why his father telling him "that might be more entertaining than the fake mind reading stuff" changed the direction of his whole career, and his friendship with James Randi, who genuinely helped launch his career after being won over by logic puzzles at a magicians' convention in the early 80s.

He teaches me the doomsday algorithm live on the podcast, a genuinely simple method for working out the day of the week for any date this year, and by the end of it I actually knew my birthday would fall on a Monday. If you've ever thought you're "not a numbers person," this conversation will quietly take that belief apart.

We also talk about growth mindset, why one bad maths teacher can shape your whole relationship with a subject for life, and his brand new off-Broadway show, That Math Show, running in New York until 16th August 2026.

Genuinely one of my favourite conversations. Have a listen.

That Math Show tickets: https://thatmathshow.com (running until 16th August 2026)
Secrets of Mental Math (book, audiobook, video course): search Arthur Benjamin on Audible or thegreatcourses.com
New book, How to Win: out October 2026

Newsletter: https://stevefaulkner.com/newsletter
Online Magic membership: https://onlinemagic.co
Steve on Instagram: @stevefaulkner
Real Magic Review on Instagram: @realmagicreview

Episode two of the WafflePod, and a heads up before you start, this one cuts off abruptly. We forgot to hit record again after a break and lost the last five minutes. You've got the meat of it though.

Me and Toby get properly into it this time. We start on ADHD, why it seems to follow performers and magicians around, whether that's genuine or just the algorithm showing us more of our own kind, and Toby's own experience of trying to get a diagnosis while living the classic pattern of hyperfocus, distraction and deadline panic.

Then we get into the actual craft. Why the first time you perform something new is always going to be rough, and why that's fine. Why perfectionism has to come after performing, not before. And a proper deep dive into Bankable by Eric Stevens, the trick, the gag at the end, and why comedy timing in magic is so often the difference between a trick landing and dying, even when the trick itself is strong. There's a great bit in here about framing a moment, letting a beat breathe before you move on, and why doing too much too fast means an audience never gets to actually enjoy what just happened.

If you do any kind of performing, there's a lot in this one.

Bankable by Eric Stevens: [Trick Trick Boom link]

Newsletter: https://stevefaulkner.com/newsletter
Online Magic membership: https://onlinemagic.co
Steve on Instagram: @stevefaulkner

Toby on Instagram: @toby__davies

Real Magic Review on Instagram: @realmagicreview

Every time Jack Rhodes sits down with me, something seismic has happened. First podcast he was on a career break wondering if he should quit his engineering job. Second time he'd just done BGT and was about to become a dad. This time he's a dad, he's finished a full UK tour, he's headlined the Opera House at Blackpool in front of 3,000 people twice in one night, and he's independently written, performed, directed and edited his own special, which comes out on YouTube on the 17th of July.

 

Thank you to my sponsor Abracircle. They create amazing websites for magicians. I'm very grateful for their support, so please click on the link and have a look.

https://www.abracircle.website/steve-faulkner-podcast-promo

 

We talk about all of it. What it actually felt like to do the Opera House after the Circle Hall went so well the year before, and why it landed differently. The nightmare 30 minutes before the Leeds show when the sound didn't work and he was screaming internally. Cutting 20 minutes out of a show he'd spent two years writing. The rule he's set for the next show: nothing where he dies a little inside while doing it. And why the cups and balls routine that magicians loved didn't work for normal people at all.

We also get into using editing as a tool to develop live material, the sound wave trick for finding dead spots in a show, work-life balance when your studio is at home and you've got a one-year-old, and what the come-down after BGT actually felt like.

And yes, David Blaine was at Blackpool specifically to see his show. That's not a small thing.

Jack's special: Out 17th July on YouTube. Search Jack Rhodes or find him at jackrodes.net
The book (few copies left): jackrodes.net/book

Newsletter: https://stevefaulkner.com/newsletter
Online Magic membership: https://onlinemagic.co
Steve on Instagram: @stevefaulkner
Real Magic Review on Instagram: @realmagicreview

Thanks to Stuart Davis for editing.

Jason Bird has been doing close-up magic professionally for a long time. He's worked cruise ships, corporates, walk-around events, and now he's building a parlour show on the east coast. And somewhere in between all of that, he sat down and wrote a book.

Thank you to my sponsor Abracircle. They create amazing websites for magicians. I'm very grateful for their support, so please click on the link and have a look.

https://www.abracircle.website/steve-faulkner-podcast-promo

 

Strolling for Dollars kept popping up on my Facebook feed and I'll be honest, I nearly dismissed it as just another ad. Then a couple of people I respect told me to actually read it. So I did. And it's a proper book. Well written, genuinely useful, and honest in a way that a lot of magic business advice simply isn't.

We talk about all of it. The first table nerves that never quite go away no matter how long you've been doing this. Why the last five minutes of a gig matter as much as the first. How to reset your energy mid-event and why most magicians don't. The business side, contracts, email scripts, what to say when you walk in, what to do when it goes wrong. And his favourite line from the whole book, good magic leads to more magic, which is worth the price of admission on its own.

We also get into the drone trick, which completely fooled me, cruise ships versus corporate work, and why he eventually decided to write everything he knew down rather than keep it to himself.

If you do close-up work at any level, this is worth your time.

Get the book: https://jasonbird.store
Pro Gig Toolkit: https://jasonbird.store
Jason's main site: https://jasonbirdproductions.com
Walk Around Warriors Facebook group: search Walk Around Warriors on Facebook

Newsletter: https://stevefaulkner.com/newsletter
Online Magic membership: https://onlinemagic.co
Steve on Instagram: @stevefaulkner
Real Magic Review on Instagram: @realmagicreview