By Vanishing Inc. – Tuesday, September 9, 2025
My guest today is the astonishing Taylor Hughes. We talk about family, story telling, and what to expect when he comes over to the UK to perform at The Session. He’s also performing at Magifest!
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Damian (00:00.709):
Hello and welcome to today’s episode of The Insider, brought to you by those lovely chaps at Vanishing Inc. Magic. My guest today is a rare breed because he’s going to do the double, which very few magicians have done, because he’s going to perform at MagiFest and at the session. But we’re going to talk about that much later because there’s a whole bunch of really interesting things that I want to ask. Taylor Hughes, Taylor, how are you this afternoon?
Taylor Hughes (00:30.274):
I’m doing so well. Thanks for having me, Damien.
Damian (00:33.401):
Now you see you’re one of those annoying magicians that’s always nice. No, there’s like you, there’s Christian Grace, there’s Kirstein, but he’s a bit sarcastic from time to time. There’s a bunch of, Sideman, Ben Sideman, he’s another one of you. You’re just always blooming nice. I, what’s your secret of being nice?
Taylor Hughes (00:38.306):
Well…
Taylor Hughes (00:52.792):
See, see, Mark, Mark, my, my buddy, Mark James says that I’m just too American. He’s like, you’re so American. We did some, we did some shows in the UK. He warned me. He’s like, dude, don’t think you’re going to go out there and they’re going to put up with this.
Damian (01:07.481):
no, no, no, no, no. I warn you for the session, for the session, people are gonna sit here like this.
Damian (01:18.437):
I BLEEP you not. They really will. That’s what English magician audiences do. What’s your origin story? You’ve got 17 seconds, go.
Taylor Hughes (01:19.278):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (01:30.226):
I started doing magic when I was seven. I’ve done it for shows for Pace since I was 10 years old. And I spent many years as a youth minister, which you knew the second you saw my face. And I’ve been doing magic full time for 12 years. I got a couple specials out and a couple books out. That’s it, I suppose.
Damian (01:53.881):
You did the time really well. Now, you were performing, and this does my head in, all three Magic Castle showrooms before you were 21. And yet, you were called by the ministry to do God’s stuff for a decade. Now, what specific moment—
Taylor Hughes (02:01.037):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (02:16.354):
Ha ha ha!
Taylor Hughes (02:20.878):
You
Damian (02:23.075):
made you realise, and I don’t mean to be putting words into your mouth, so if I’m speaking out of turn, tell me, what specific moment made you realise you were living someone else’s life rather than your own?
Taylor Hughes (02:28.812):
No, go ahead!
Taylor Hughes (02:37.55):
yeah, that’s that is a great way to put it. And I told I’ll tell everyone here, but you were said, you know, people always say, would you jump on a podcast or anything that’s off limits? And I said, my best friend is Mark James. You literally can’t say anything that would offend me. That’s a great question. Yeah. You know, it’s so funny is I don’t feel like I was called into ministry. I just grew up.
in the church and I was the kid who just kept putting my hand up to volunteer for stuff. And if you do that long enough, they’ll give you a job. And so, I always knew since the time I was a little kid, I wanted to do entertainment. And for many, many years, I, I mean, I think church was my open mic. We all need a place where we can be really bad before, you know, before you get good. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I,
Damian (03:23.365):
Sure. Yeah. Get your flight time. So were you doing gospel magic stuff?
Taylor Hughes (03:31.872):
I never, I never was the guy who was like, this represents this. I think, it’s interesting to me. I feel like sometimes whether it’s gospel magic or keynote speaking, sometimes people take a bad magic trick and a bad concept and they put them together and they think that it will somehow improve it. And, I just always felt like whatever you’re talking about, whether it’s educational or keynote or whatever, the message needs to be strong enough.
Damian (03:48.387):
huh.
Taylor Hughes (04:00.513):
to stand on its own and the magic should add value to that, it should be strong enough to stand on its own. yeah, I never, I never was, was that guy. I just kind of always did, you know, getting asked to do something at church gave me an excuse to do a magic trick.
Damian (04:04.922):
Sure.
Damian (04:16.357):
Sure, sure, but what was the moment that you realised that you wanted to do magic? Was there one thing that happened?
Taylor Hughes (04:25.951):
Yeah. I mean, I, my last book, is called misdirection, a magician’s guide to spotting and avoiding manipulation. And, it came about because of an experience we had in the church where, know, for years I was just like, it’s great. We’re about helping the community, making a difference. And the place I was at, some things went down with the leadership where I was just like, wait a minute, we’re not even really doing the thing we said we were doing. And I never really felt like this is what I wanted to do with my life.
So what if I just went and did what I want to do with my life? And that was kind of the move for me.
Damian (05:04.045):
In my research, I’ve heard you mention that you had, quote, quote, six weeks left until we have nothing, unquote, when you made the leap. Can you walk us through what your actual daily routine looked like during those first desperate months of rebuilding your career? We’re going straight into the heavy stuff here, Taylor.
Taylor Hughes (05:05.737):
Okay?
Taylor Hughes (05:15.536):
yeah.
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (05:27.071):
Yeah. So, I love it, man. This is the good stuff. This is the, podcast usually has like a peak where it’s like, they’re talking about whatever. And then it gets into the really good. I like that you just start up again. Yeah. Who cares? Who cares? that’s so good. Okay. So, yeah. So when we, when I left working, I was working full time at the church. Now the whole time I was working as a minister.
Damian (05:38.105):
Tell me about your thoughts on a double lift.
Taylor Hughes (05:54.55):
I was doing 60 or 70 shows every year and that was pain so that I could afford to be a minister. but the last year that I was there, I really was having this kind of exits existential crisis of like, am I supposed to stay here? Am I supposed to leave? What am I supposed to do with my life? And for me at the time, magic was this beautiful escape. I was in this really pressurized environment at work. And then I’d go on the, on a Friday night and people would clap for me and hand me a
Damian (06:19.813):
Mm-hmm.
Taylor Hughes (06:24.245):
pile of cash and I could keep doing this other thing that wasn’t super great for me. So I said, you know what? I need to take a break from magic. And I literally took down my website, changed my phone number, gave away nine months worth of gigs to friends and sold all my props, which is kind of crazy. But when I started doing magic a year later, full time, I had nothing. And that’s where that quote you were saying came from of
We literally had sold our house as part of this whole process and I had a little bit of money from that and I was, I was like, literally got to the point where I’m like in six weeks, we will have no money. I either need to get a job at Target or I need to try to do the one thing I always wanted to do with my life, which was magic full time. And that’s all I’ve done since then. So, the very first thing I did.
I literally had to like borrow some props from friends for routines that I used to do. cause we didn’t have money to spend on. So I was like cobbling. like, what do you got it? You got a spot card. Great. I’ll be, that’ll be part of the show. And then I just, I reached out to like friends and just let them know, Hey, I’m doing this. I’m doing a full time and I will do anything. And when I say I will do anything, I, I mean, I dressed as a jester as a court jester and did close up magic.
at an Irish pub. And if you ever wondered what would humble you, it’s doing closeup magic at an Irish pub dressed as a court jester. because I really needed to pay the rent.
Damian (07:55.641):
Mm-hmm.
Damian (08:01.445):
Did you have to do a fake Irish accent as part of your contract? At the of the morning!
Taylor Hughes (08:05.517):
I didn’t have to do it, but I did. do it. save space, man. But yeah, there are those moments, right? In your career, especially if you’re trying to do this full time where you’re like, you know, sometimes you do stuff because you love it. And sometimes you just go, this is going to get us groceries this week.
Damian (08:11.749):
Tips are tips, man. Do know what I mean? You gotta live your life. There’s no judgment. This is a safe space, Taylor. Now, safe space.
Taylor Hughes (08:33.554):
And so yeah, there was a season there where it was a lot of that stuff.
Damian (08:39.173):
Well, that happens. Now, your wife of two plus decades was your childhood sweetheart, Katie, and she’s been with you through both your pastoral career and your magic rebirth. Should we say? No, no, bless her. How did she help you navigate that identity crisis of essentially becoming a completely different public person when you were?
Taylor Hughes (08:40.799):
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (08:54.549):
Neither one that she signed up for.
Taylor Hughes (09:04.749):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (09:08.151):
Yeah.
Damian (09:08.739):
Was it 33?
Taylor Hughes (09:10.559):
Yeah, I was, was there. I always joke that I spent my whole life wanting to be like Jesus. And then at 33, I was crucified by the church. fit. Well, I, yeah, it’s crazy when I, really, for at the first, it was just like survival. It’s like, what skills do I have that can help pay the bills? But I, remember talking to her. I didn’t, we didn’t leave the life we had to start doing this. A lot of people, that’s, that’s a great thing. It’s like, I gave up my full time job.
Damian (09:17.465):
Hehehehehe
Taylor Hughes (09:40.366):
Because to do the thing I love for me, was just like, I just can’t do this other thing anymore. And so when we first started out, it was kind of like, all right, I’ll do this and see how it goes. And if not, I’ll get another job. And then at a certain point, I had to talk to my wife and be like, I have to do magic. Like, this is my life now. And you know, it’s wild is it’s.
I mean, if anything has been really successful in our relationship, it’s just been like we communicate aggressively. Like we’re just talk about everything. And she just knew, like she always knows before I know. So me sharing stuff with her that I think is like this big epiphany, she’s like, well, yeah, you know, like when I wanted to go into keynote speaking, she’s like, well, you did that as a preacher for years. Like you, you’ve always done this.
Damian (10:23.001):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, obviously.
Damian (10:31.109):
That’s literally what you were doing.
Taylor Hughes (10:33.117):
Yeah. I mean, I think it’s so funny how often we’ll come home to our partners and we’ll be like, Hey, I did, I did a show and it went great and people loved it. And we want them to be like, that’s great. And it’s like, plumbers don’t go home and go like, yeah, I I ran those pipes today. It’s like, well, that’s your job. But I feel like as performers, we have this weird thing where we every day we’re like, I did it. I could, I could still do it. Yeah.
Damian (10:48.933):
I totally fixed that for a set.
Damian (10:56.517):
Validate me, validate me.
Taylor Hughes (11:01.963):
But Katie, Katie’s the one who’s who’s the reason I do storytelling today. Like my whole vibe now.
Damian (11:07.117):
You see, you’re preempting my next question. Shut up. You ready? Your signi… No, shush, shush, shush, shush. Your signature magic storytelling style emerged after a conversation with Katie about integrating personal stories. See, I’ve done this research, What was the first… I know! What was the first story?
Taylor Hughes (11:13.473):
Well, I’m working on my Q &A act.
Taylor Hughes (11:22.391):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (11:30.869):
You’re doing serious research here. Wow.
Damian (11:35.917):
you ever wove into a magic trick and how did the audience reaction surprise you?
Taylor Hughes (11:41.452):
The first story that I did on stage was this story. in my first special. It’s a magic milk pitcher story of me basically falling in love with this trick where the milk vanishes and wanting to do it. And then I got the trick and didn’t set it up properly. And I dumped milk all over a kid when I was still a kid. And I wrote that story and I said, I’m going to try to tell this in the middle of a show with no magic, no trick.
I’m just going to, again, I don’t want to be like a gospel guy of like, here’s the rever- like, just want to be able, the stories should be strong enough by themselves. And I told it and I was so nervous and I’ll tell you what, man, as I was telling the story, people leaned in in like a different way. And it’s, if you’ve ever, if you’ve ever spent much time doing strolling magic, you’ve had this occurrence happen where you’re doing a trick, you start a trick for somebody and then their best buddy comes up, right?
and they go, my gosh, it’s my friend. I’m so sorry, my friend just walked in and you go, no problem and you don’t finish the trick. That never happens with a story. If you’re telling someone a story and their best friend in the world walks up, they go, my gosh, you’re here. Come over here. Hey, finish that story. He was just telling me a thing. People can’t handle not hearing the end of a story.
I noticed that if I stopped going, what magic do I want to do? And I started going, what story do I want to tell? Then, then it changed everything. Cause now people lean in and they walk away. The magic’s good, but they walk away going like, my gosh, that was, there was something different, you know, cause we connect to stories. So
Damian (13:23.098):
Yeah.
Damian (13:26.917):
sweeping statement, but I think.
After being involved in magic for 40 years, I can say that most magicians struggle with storytelling. Either the story drags on or the magic feels rushed. Do you have a method for structuring, let’s say the emotional arc of a story around original magic moments?
Taylor Hughes (13:54.602):
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So, I mean, there’s so much we could talk about with this. Basically, though, the number one thing is to start with a true story. Most magicians that do storytelling, it’s a bull BLEEP. Yeah, it’s a it’s like a bull BLEEP story, right? Like every cruise act is going to talk about how they never saw snow and they’re going to end with snow or a kid they met in the hospital, which
Damian (14:16.675):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Taylor Hughes (14:20.391):
If that really happened, it’s a great story. know, my buddy, Mark, who I talk about constantly, but Mark James says he’s like, you either, you either need to live your lies or tell your truth, right? Like if you’re going to do a routine where you talk about being a gambler, we’ll fricking go gamble and see what that’s like. Right. But
You know, you see a 20 year old guy getting up there telling a story about how I used to be in with the mob. No, you didn’t. That’s not relatable because it’s not real. So I think you can either work really hard to be a good actor or you can tell the truth. And the truth is always more interesting because we connect to it. We feel it. Right. So for me, a basic structure of storytelling is think of a moment from your life that was either interesting or funny or embarrassing.
Or where you felt huge victory or where you, you felt massive failure because even though you’re telling a personal story, those are things we can all relate to. We’ve all failed. We’ve all succeeded. We’ve all been embarrassed. We all lost somebody close to us. Think about a story that you, when you tend to tell this story to people, they lean into it and then just write what happened before that. And then what happened after it. So when I was a kid, I
Damian (15:25.125):
Mm-hmm.
Taylor Hughes (15:40.908):
The beforehand is I wanted to do this milk pitcher trick, but I couldn’t afford the prop. Then I tell the story of how I got the prop. Then I fail with the prop. And at the end of it, this other kid taught me this lesson about like not taking yourself so seriously. Right. So, so great storytelling is I thought this way. I felt this way. I wanted this thing. Then something happened and now I felt something different, thought something different, wanted something different. That’s a good story. Right. That gives you that little art.
Damian (16:07.407):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (16:11.307):
So on my phone, I keep a list of story, like just memories that sound interesting to me. And then I keep a list of tricks that I absolutely love. And then I keep a list of joke premises. And if I can look at those three lists and go, Hey, here’s a great trick that I love. Here’s a real thing that happened to me. And here’s some funny jokes. That’s the perfect marriage of it. And a good example of this is I just posted.
Taylor Hughes (16:41.117):
my Chicago magic lounge show. I open with Sean Farquhar’s torn to pieces with the, with a photo. But I had had this moment where I was at my mom’s house and she brings out this envelope and it was, she had accidentally ordered a hundred copies of my school photo as a kid. And so she gave me 97 copies because we only knew three people. Yeah. And so then I’m like, great. I’m going to do that trick that I like.
Damian (17:03.941):
free refills.
Taylor Hughes (17:11.105):
but I’m telling this story that’s personal. And then I’m just going to write comedy that everyone can relate to about the pressure you felt as a kid of keeping your hair nice and not, you know, and your parents felt pressure because they had to order the photo before they even knew if it was good. Like, so you take a personal thing, you take a tricky love, you take relatable comedy and you put them together. And now it seems super original because it is, but you get to do a trick that you love that you know works.
Damian (17:13.807):
Yeah.
Damian (17:20.121):
Yeah.
Damian (17:39.375):
Okay, which of those three things is the most important?
Taylor Hughes (17:43.557):
the most for me, the most important, the most important thing is do people relate to it? Right. because it, I, yeah.
Damian (17:51.952):
Sorry, let me rephrase. Of the trick that you love, the story and the comedy, which one takes priority?
Taylor Hughes (17:57.536):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (18:00.949):
I mean, I guess the story for me, cause that’s where I always start with, like, I cannot come up with enough original magic effects to have no one else doing it. And when I do come up with something, it’s so good. want other people doing it. Right. the thing that is making my act original is my personal real life stories. So if somebody wants this,
Damian (18:25.785):
Yeah, no one else is Taylor Hughes.
Taylor Hughes (18:28.715):
Yeah. So it just like, not that my stories are any better than anyone else’s, but it’s like, I’ve no one else has lived this life. So if you want to protect your act, who cares what trick you’re doing, there’s a million great tricks, but if you want to protect your act, put yourself into it in a way that if someone steals your routine, they literally have to be a better actor at being you than you are. Right. Like, so I think that that’s the biggest one for me is the, is the personal.
story stuff.
Damian (19:00.101):
Now, I’m going to be honest with you. And before you did the masterclass with Vanishing Ink, I was unaware of your work. And you’d mentioned, you’ve mentioned in interviews that earning fame in magic often comes from fooling other magicians. But you’ve focused on the people that pay the bills, which is the lay audiences. Now, how do you think this philosophical
Taylor Hughes (19:10.377):
Yeah, understandably.
Damian (19:30.403):
choice has affected your relationship within the magic community.
Taylor Hughes (19:35.406):
Hmm. It’s interesting. I, um, up until maybe, I mean, it was after COVID, not, not before COVID. I didn’t really go to conventions. I didn’t perform for other magicians. And honestly, that wasn’t intentional. It was just, I need to pay the bills. How do I do it? I got to do stuff for audiences. Um, and again, not to always go back to Mark, but Mark James, my buddy was the one who was like, Hey,
Damian (19:47.0):
Mm-hmm.
Damian (19:54.383):
show.
Taylor Hughes (20:05.261):
It’s not going to hurt you to like show people what you’re doing and you’re going to make some really great relationships and there’s going to be some opportunities that come from that. So I just started to start to be like, yeah, I’ll lecture. did a lecture at the castle and I don’t know how to magic lecture. I don’t have a lot of stuff to sell. So I’m just like, here’s stuff from my show. And if you want to do it, do it, you know.
Damian (20:32.771):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Taylor Hughes (20:34.977):
But that, I feel like I’m getting off topic here, but you were asking how that decision to focus on laypeople had helped or how do we start?
Damian (20:44.195):
Yeah, how it impacted your relationship with the Magic community.
Taylor Hughes (20:48.491):
Well, the question I get a lot from our, conversations I have a lot with performers is about how I’ve done a lot of work for lay audiences, right? Because workers want to know how to work. They want to know like, Hey, what can I do that’s going to make me either have the opportunities I want to do or, be able to get more shows and make more money. And ultimately the stuff that helps with that is not the stuff we always get excited about as magicians.
Damian (21:17.918):
Absolutely another Akan variation. Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (21:18.155):
Like, like.
Yeah. I mean, I love, I love seeing the latest gadget and method and concept, but w but what we have to remember is that those are all the things the audience never sees. Right? Like there’s, there’s a, any card at any number, there’s a hundred ways to do it. They don’t even know one of them. So for me, the thing that’s made the biggest difference is really focusing on who is my audience. And that is people who are either going to
Damian (21:28.217):
Me too.
Taylor Hughes (21:50.712):
hire me to come to a corporate event or they’re going to buy a ticket if I come to town and I want to do everything for them. But doing everything for them also has helped me connect with magicians because now I have things that are helpful that I can share for them. You know, so I don’t think it’s either or. And I found I found that like getting more involved with other performers has just been I mean, I sat down at Magic Live the other day till like four in the morning every night.
Damian (22:08.015):
Yeah
Taylor Hughes (22:20.481):
having conversations with people. I’m like, I feel like my career and my life is two years ahead of where it would have been if I didn’t sit and have those conversations with people. So I don’t think you, I don’t think you, yeah, I think you only win by getting around other people doing what you love.
Damian (22:39.653):
You studied improv at Upright Citizens Brigade, according to my research, for four years. Now, how, I’ve got a team of unpaid interns from the Magic Cafe that go and finds stuff out for me. Improv is something that I think is really interesting when it comes to magic. How do you think your improv training specifically influenced your approach to
Taylor Hughes (22:45.421):
Where you getting all this stuff?
Taylor Hughes (22:53.471):
I love it. I love it.
Taylor Hughes (23:06.604):
Yeah.
Damian (23:10.371):
your work to handling hecklers and dealing with unexpected moments, you know.
Taylor Hughes (23:11.685):
my gosh.
Taylor Hughes (23:16.331):
That’s so good. mean, so I, yeah, I studied long form improv, which like most people know improv is like whose line is it, is it anyway, where, know, it’s short form and we set up games and we say, you’re going to be a cowboy and you’re a, you know, you’re selling ATMs and you’re trying to whatever you create a scene and then people go and long form is literally, Hey, we need a one word suggestion and we’re going to do an hour long show based on that.
Damian (23:23.118):
Mm-hmm.
Taylor Hughes (23:42.598):
And the first time I stepped into an improv class, it was terrifying because I’m used to being a solo performer that’s in charge of everything that happens on stage. And when you do improv, it’s all about yes. And it’s, it’s acknowledging what someone just said. It’s adding value and it’s agreement. Right. So you might be on the back wall of an improv scene and you get an idea and you step forward. But if the person that steps forward with you starts talking before you do.
Damian (23:57.285):
Mm-hmm.
Taylor Hughes (24:11.337):
It doesn’t matter what idea you just had. You got to let it go and agree and go with them. And that was so hard for me to grasp, but it has made me so much funnier on stage with people because when an audience member does something interesting or when they, something weird happens in the show, I don’t see it anymore as an interruption to what I had planned. I see it as like a, this beautiful gift of like, if I can, you know what I mean? Like,
Damian (24:15.215):
Mm-hmm.
Damian (24:40.855):
Yeah, yeah. So it’s just reframing it.
Taylor Hughes (24:41.259):
Like people, people aren’t, yeah, they’re not trying to be rude. They’re just, you know, but, sometimes that’s the other thing too, with improv is you don’t go out there and you try to be funny. just ground yourself and act like you naturally would in that situation. And something interesting will come up and you recognize what interesting happened. And now you make it all about that. That’s what great crowd work is. Right? Like that’s so.
Damian (25:03.951):
Yeah. Of course.
Taylor Hughes (25:08.565):
Yeah. think magicians like putting yourself in that scenario where you have to work with other people. It also, and I’ll, I’ll, I’ll just leave it with this, it also helped me stop using people as a prop and most magicians bring people on stage to have them hold something or to make a joke about them or to, you know what I’m saying? We utilize people as a prop instead of as a partner on stage. And I think
Damian (25:25.157):
Mm-hmm.
Damian (25:36.313):
Yeah. Unpaid part of your act.
Taylor Hughes (25:39.062):
Yeah. And I think if you’re going to make somebody who bought a ticket, get out of their seat to come on stage and help you, you better be giving them a better experience than the whole audience is getting by observing them. Right. And so, yeah, yeah. So I think, I think improv is a great way to train your brain to look at other people that you interact with as like a co-partner in a scene instead of just, you know,
Damian (25:52.037):
Yeah, preach, yes.
Damian (26:05.669):
couldn’t agree more.
Taylor Hughes (26:06.635):
He didn’t see the ball go over his head, you know?
Damian (26:08.783):
Yeah,
We have something in common, which is we both have two daughters and your daughters, Madeleine and Kennedy, if my researchers have done it right, are growing up.
Taylor Hughes (26:13.962):
Okay.
Taylor Hughes (26:22.317):
This is wild. I feel like I’m watching call- calling Cloud right now. Like he knows everything about me.
Damian (26:26.085):
You
think of a number I’m just gonna thumb write it
They’re growing up with a dad who performs magic professionally. And I’ve got two girls that I don’t perform, I do perform professionally sometimes, but my main job is marketing. How do you maintain or have you given up the sense of wonder and surprise for them? Because my girls are 11 and nearly five. And so the 11 year old I do a show with, the five year old is still just amazed by everything, right? But do you…
Taylor Hughes (26:57.514):
everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Damian (26:59.481):
do anything to keep that sense of wonder for them when they know daddy secrets.
Taylor Hughes (27:04.309):
Yeah, they, mean, my kiddos, like they know everything. They, they, they’ve been around long enough, but it’s interesting. I used to think I had to police that for them to like give them some childhood innocence or wonder. And, I noticed a couple of things, like one, my, my oldest daughter, there’s a certain trick I do where she was like, I don’t know how that works. I don’t ever want to know. Like she literally told me like, don’t tell me like she’s choosing for herself.
what she wants to just experience as an audience member. And the other thing, the other thing too, is like my kids freaking, they just love theater. They love, if we go to the magic castle, they want to like run around and give everyone a tour. Like they love being backstage. I used to think it was going to like take something away from them, but I mean, this week alone, we went on, last week we went to the magic castle.
Damian (27:36.837):
Sure.
Taylor Hughes (27:58.526):
Yeah, two nights ago we went and saw shucked the musical in LA, a musical about corn, which is hilarious. And then tonight we’re going to an improv show at UCB out in LA. So it’s just interesting how much of their world is knowing entertainers behind the scene, but they still love it. Like they make the best audience members cause they get like this bigger picture of what it’s all about. You know? Yeah.
Damian (28:22.053):
Sure, sure, sure. I’ve now got to the point where my eldest was little, I’d do a trick where I’d force a card and it was always the Ace of Spades because it was so visually different from the other ones. She could recognise it. She was two and a half and I’d force the Ace of Spades on someone and I’d say, which is the special card? And she’d look through and pick it up. She didn’t know what a magic trick was, but she knew if she picked up the Ace of Spades, everyone would clap.
Taylor Hughes (28:35.146):
Right, right, right.
Taylor Hughes (28:49.495):
Yeah.
Damian (28:49.837):
and now she can force a card for her sister to find. So they do this really, really cute thing where the 11 year old’s forcing the ace of spades and then the four year old finds it and everybody poops their pants. It’s brilliant.
Taylor Hughes (28:55.245):
That’s so fun.
Taylor Hughes (29:00.793):
I love that.
I love that so much.
Damian (29:10.841):
With Katie, your high school sweetheart, which is so beautiful, and you’ve been together through multiple career transformations, what’s one piece of marriage advice you would give to entertainers whose careers demand maybe a lot of travel and irregular schedules? Schedules, as you may say.
Taylor Hughes (29:15.127):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (29:18.998):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (29:30.997):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s good. I got this advice from my buddy Chipper Lowell who travels a ton and also is like one of the best family men I know. it beat when you’re home, be home, like be present when you’re with your family. You’re not, I see so many guys go on the road and the road is exhausting. Shows are exhausting.
Damian (29:47.738):
Mm.
Taylor Hughes (29:58.26):
you can’t come home and be like, I’m too tired and just sleep on the three days you’re at home or be like, I don’t want to talk about everything that happened. Like I’ve seen guys do that. And I realize, my wife doesn’t want to just hear it went good. She wants to know details. like, I take notes of like interesting things that happen. And then I share them with her. Like when I talk to her, I have things to say, like just when you get home,
You gotta be home and look, you’re gonna, if you’re gonna do this and you’re gonna be a good parent or spouse, you’re gonna be tired. Just get used to it and realize that that’s part of it. And, and if your family, when you’re home, you’re miserable because you know, you went out on the road and you don’t have time for them. They’re not going to be excited the next time you get a gig to go on the road, right?
But if you come home and you’re energized and you’ve got fun stories to share and they get to hear about like the work that you’re doing and the difference it’s making, then they’re going to be more excited to have you go or they’ll want to go with you. so, yeah, I think, I think that’s a good one.
Damian (31:09.237):
I think we’re close enough in age as a guest, but our generation of magicians grew up before the internet and you were doing the pastoral care, but people our age were building careers before this digital transformation that’s happened. How do you think young magicians today should approach things differently from people our age?
Taylor Hughes (31:19.746):
Mm-hmm.
Taylor Hughes (31:26.669):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (31:30.412):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (31:38.741):
Ooh, like if they’re starting out or.
Damian (31:42.149):
Mmm.
Yeah, if they’re starting out. Because they’ve got things at their fingertips that we never had.
Taylor Hughes (31:46.923):
I think…
Taylor Hughes (31:51.158):
Right, right. Yeah, I mean, if any, if any excuses exist, it’s not, I don’t have access to that information, right? Like when I was a kid and I wanted to learn a trick, you had to like find a magic shop, then prove to the person there that you were like worthy. And then when everyone else left who was a muggle, they’d like say, pull you aside and go, Hey, here’s what you need to know. And then you had to go find a guy that like, was like, everything was a riddle, you know, now it’s like, I can
Damian (31:58.533):
Hmm.
Taylor Hughes (32:19.121):
Ask chat GPT and it gives me everything. You know, like, so I, I am, I love this time period that we’re in where you have instant access to all information. think one thing that can be overwhelming for young people is like, well, I can do anything now. So where do I start? And, and I would say for both the old, like our generation or like older guys, it’s like,
Damian (32:37.935):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (32:46.237):
embrace the new technology that’s available because you still, you had to get on that TV show to get somebody to see you. And now you can from your living room, film something that if you do a good job and you like play the game, like I’ve had videos that more people watched than watched the Grammys last year. Like how is that possible? But that’s just the world we live in. So sometimes the older generation is like,
Damian (33:09.721):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (33:14.461):
So against that stuff, it’s like, this is the answer to the thing you’re wanting to do for the younger generation. I would say in the midst of putting yourself online and spending a lot of time connecting and learning online, there’s nothing like getting in front of a live audience. And so I would say, yeah, it’s kind of like the old, the older crowd get online more, the younger crowd get in front of people more.
Damian (33:31.749):
Yeah, see that.
Damian (33:41.167):
Get in front of real people. Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (33:43.233):
Get in front of real people, man. There’s nothing like it. yeah, but I don’t think it’s either or. think both sides of that coin are necessary right
Damian (33:56.046):
If you could go back to when you were 21, when you were performing in all three Magic Castle rooms, what’s one piece of advice about the long game of a magic career that you would give yourself now?
Taylor Hughes (34:03.565):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (34:12.599):
Man, that’s so tough. mean, I even, I’ve had times when I’ve been like, if what if I never went into the ministry? You know what mean? Like, what if I kept going full steam ahead? But I also think you can’t ever, everything about your life has made you who you are. And so I don’t think I’d be able to do magic at the level I’m doing it now. If I didn’t have a time away from it.
Damian (34:37.519):
Mm-hmm.
Taylor Hughes (34:38.807):
But I do think if I could go back, if I could talk to a 21 year old me right now, I’d be like,
Damian (34:45.913):
Don’t bother learning the DPS, no one does it in the real world.
Taylor Hughes (34:49.325):
Diagonal Palm shift. Gosh. Yeah. I mean, I think the, the, the, the biggest thing would be like, figure out who you are and just be that guy. I spent so long. I mean, my wife again is the one I mean, and I’m not, I’m talking like, I’m talking like after I left the ministry. So I’m in my mid thirties.
Damian (34:54.053):
You
Damian (35:07.726):
That’s solid.
Damian (35:18.469):
Mm-hmm.
Taylor Hughes (35:18.837):
And I was going to the castle one night and I was meeting up with some friends and I was just super, I was in my head about it. Like, I think we all deal with imposter syndrome. You know, I was this guy who was starting magic full time late in my life and feeling like I didn’t belong in the room. I would walk into rooms I was invited into apologizing that I was there. And, and Katie’s the one who one day just went like,
Damian (35:26.949):
Sure.
Damian (35:39.001):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Taylor Hughes (35:43.65):
The reason you’re there is people want to be around you, like quit apologizing for being who you are and just be that guy. And I’m telling you, it shifted something. Like I just think we spend so much of our life as magicians is emulating other people. It’s trying on Lance Burton’s act or Michael Finney’s rope trick or like whatever it is. Like we, we
Damian (36:04.911):
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Taylor Hughes (36:09.269):
We so learn from watching other people that it’s real easy to lose who you are in the midst of it. And I just think the quicker you can figure out who am I and who am I trying to reach, things get a lot better, you know?
Damian (36:25.093):
Casey sounds like a keeper, Taylor.
Taylor Hughes (36:27.959):
Man, she’s the best.
Damian (36:30.629):
10 years from now, when your kids are adults, what do you hope they’ll say was the most important thing they learned from watching their daddy chase wonder professionally?
Taylor Hughes (36:32.364):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (36:44.525):
Hmm.
I think…
Taylor Hughes (36:52.779):
Gosh, I just…
I just want, I want them to go like, it’s okay to do what you want to do. You know, I think, so much of life is us just agreeing to things that other people want for us. Or, you know, as a kid, people speak things into you, not in a negative way, but they just go like, you’re going to be a great baseball player, whatever it is. I talk now, especially my corporate work to so many people who have
Damian (37:11.659):
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Taylor Hughes (37:24.023):
checked every box they ever thought they wanted to check. And now they’re in their 50s or 60s and they’ve made their money and they’re not happy. They don’t because they they did everything they thought they were supposed to do. They never gave themselves permission to do what it is that they wanted to do. And so I hope my kids like I mean, it’d be great if they thought that about me. I just want them to realize for themselves like you get to decide like you get to pick. It’s just a
Damian (37:41.728):
Mm-hmm
Taylor Hughes (37:53.794):
This is a choose your own adventure and no one else is pulling the strings. if your life is not looking the way you want it, you can make a choice today that will lead to a different life, you know, if you want.
Damian (38:08.299):
That’s heavy man, that’s beautiful. I dig that.
Taylor Hughes (38:09.869):
This is what happens when you start with the heavy questions.
Damian (38:17.145):
I know. if people are in Ohio or Heathrow in January and they want to talk to you about really heavy family stuff, that was a smooth segue, right? You’re gonna be at MagiFest and at the session and you’ve never been to the session, have you?
Taylor Hughes (38:17.613):
Quick, quick, talk about a top change.
Taylor Hughes (38:24.866):
Yeah.
Yeah!
Taylor Hughes (38:35.787):
Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (38:43.489):
I’ve never been to this session.
Damian (38:45.603):
Are you ready for this?
Taylor Hughes (38:48.223):
I’m ready. Yeah, I feel like that’s every man. That’s I feel like that’s every crowd of magicians. Like, I don’t know.
Damian (38:50.245):
It’s gonna happen, man. I tell you, it’s gonna happen.
Damian (38:56.517):
No, no. Have you performed or lectured in the UK ever?
Taylor Hughes (39:02.859):
I’ve performed last year, Mark and I did, we did, three shows in four days and,
Damian (39:09.391):
But that was lay people. Yeah, you’ve never performed for magicians.
Taylor Hughes (39:12.201):
Yeah. Yeah. I did. I did a lecture at the magic circle last year and that was, that was, it was a lot of.
Damian (39:17.413):
Okay, and were they like this? Yeah, don’t think that’s what we like. Impress me, American guy. What you got? So brace yourself for that. But the session is a very, they will sit there like this, a bunch of them. But then afterwards, one of the things, I used to go to the session before I worked for Vanishing Ink as a punter and.
Taylor Hughes (39:23.315):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’m brave.
Damian (39:44.408):
It’s the most welcoming, friendly convention I’ve been to. It’s small, it’s small, but everybody’s up for it. Everybody wants to be nice to everybody. There’s no cliquey kind of stuff. you see you at a table, then someone can come and sit down and talk to you. And that’s one of the really lovely, the food, I apologize for in advance. Although there’s a new hotel this year, and apparently the food is not as
Taylor Hughes (39:48.205):
that’s great. Yeah.
Taylor Hughes (39:53.782):
I love it.
Taylor Hughes (40:03.415):
Yeah.
Damian (40:13.775):
bad as the food at the last hotel. But there is is a McDonald’s within walking distance, Taylor. So so what are you going to be what are you going to be sharing at the conventions?
Taylor Hughes (40:15.582):
I’m go.
Taylor Hughes (40:20.205):
That’s great,
Taylor Hughes (40:27.469):
So I’m okay. Here’s what’s fun. I don’t fully, I don’t know. And I’ll tell you why I don’t know. I’ll tell you why I don’t know because I have a commitment that I’ve made to myself. I love burning material. I, I, you know, I put out in 2020, I put out a special, I put out one in 2023, and then I just released a, like a mini special, uh, that’s on YouTube right now.
Damian (40:30.925):
What do you not know yet? Yes.
Damian (40:44.11):
Uh-huh.
Taylor Hughes (40:56.553):
I love going, I’m going to write a show. I’m going to do the show. I’m going to put it out. Right. And so a lot of my vanishing ink lecture that I just did was from the shows that I had, had done before. And now I’m working on some stuff that’s really fun. but I also love that. I don’t fully know what, like this show that I’m doing now will be maybe 20 % of what I do when I see everybody in January. so I like that.
Damian (41:21.519):
Okay.
Taylor Hughes (41:26.477):
I mean, if we, if we did the lecture tomorrow, I know what I would do, but I don’t know what it’s going to be six months from now. You know, it’s going to be different. It’d be fun.
Damian (41:35.909):
How exciting. Taylor, we’ve run out of time. If people want to follow your activities on their social media, where should they go?
Taylor Hughes (41:45.1):
Yeah. Yeah. So I’m a magic storyteller on Instagram. I’m super active on there. I also really fired up my YouTube channel and I’m dropping tons of storytelling content there. So if you are interested in storytelling or I’ve got a, I put a free masterclass on writing books on there. put a free one on there. I’m public speaking. Like I just am trying to
share as much stuff that I found that works and it’s on there on my YouTube channel, which is also Magic Storyteller.
Damian (42:16.645):
We also, we always finish the show with four quick fire questions. Are you ready? Favorite pizza topping?
Taylor Hughes (42:23.701):
I’m ready.
Ooh, pepperoni.
Damian (42:29.081):
Favorite movie?
Taylor Hughes (42:30.827):
Back to the future.
Damian (42:32.559):
favorite person or people that make music.
Taylor Hughes (42:36.586):
my gosh, that’s tough. My favorite rock band is the Killers.
Damian (42:41.687):
And who would you prefer to fight, one massive Andy or a hundred tiny Joshuas?
Taylor Hughes (42:49.837):
that’s really tough. mean, cause part of me wants. Well, well, see, but because I love comedy, my brain goes for what’s funnier. Like one massive Andy is pretty funny, but he’s gonna, he’s going to be kind of clunky, you know? Yeah. A lot of Josh’s. Right. yeah. I think a lot of Josh’s would be wild. I wouldn’t want to fight a lot of Josh’s, but.
Damian (42:54.341):
This is the hardcore stuff here, Taylor.
Damian (43:02.66):
Uh-huh.
Damian (43:07.457):
Yeah, but the little Joshua’s could be like nippy.
Damian (43:15.877):
So we’re going for Andy.
Taylor Hughes (43:19.381):
I’ll go for it. Well, the comedic value, I might do it. I might die by a hundred Josh’s just so everyone could watch. Yeah. Yeah. Just look, you know, a hundred people, tiny people trying to kill you while talking about, you know, the diagonal Palm shift. Yeah.
Damian (43:20.408):
Giant Andy.
Damian (43:24.687):
Just for the laughs. You are that committed to the art, Toby Hughes.
Damian (43:35.077):
Six card repeat. Taylor Hughes, it has been an utter pleasure. Thank you for giving us so much of your time and I look forward to meet it, because we’ve not met. I look forward to meeting you at the session in January and thank you very much.
Taylor Hughes (43:46.901):
I know!
it’s going to be so fun. Thank you.
Damian (43:56.486):
Thanks ever so much. Stop.
Taylor Hughes (43:59.189):
my gosh, dude. Thank you. I hope that was okay.
